A Person of Common Interest
by NJvigilante
Summary: Lauren Westen moves to New York to help an old friend save lives after quitting her law enforcement job. Along the way, she finds out that the Westen's aren't the only ones with government issues and that hiding from the government may not be so bad after all. A Burn Notice, Person of Interest crossover fic of sorts with an O/C thrown into the mix. Will be mostly Person of Interest
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hi everyone, NJVigilante here. Just wanted to say this is my first fanfic and reviews are welcome. The story will get into full POI around chapter 7, so hopefully if you hate or don't know burn notice you'll stick around till then. Enjoy!

 **CHAPTER 1: MEET ME IN MIAMI**

 **My name is Lauren Westen. I used to be special agent. Until... "You are permanently removed from the field." When that happens you sit at a desk and do paperwork from 9-5, for five maybe six days a week. You never see an arrest or a foot chase ever again. You just sit on your ass all day. Bottom line is you sit at desk until retirement or you quit.**

 _Naturally I chose the second option. I knew that I would have no money, but who wants to sit on their ass at a desk for the next 30 or more years? No one. Luckily, I still had a friend in New York from my college days. I mean he may not understand why I would quit a job with great pay just because I had to sit at a desk until I retired, but he would surely offer me good advice. So right after I quit my job at the FBI I flew to New York to find Mr. Harold Finch._

...

I woke up to a flight attendant gently shaking me. Apparently the flight to Miami was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. It's been two months since I quit my job and I just got around to visiting my family in Miami. I mean, I could have come down here sooner, but that would have meant dealing with my mother bothering me to drive her to the doctor or the store or really anywhere just because I was in town; not because she was incapable. The real reason I was in town was actually because my visit with Harold had been very informational and I found out that my brother was back in the states for good for over a month already. And of course if Harold hadn't looked Michael up for me, I would have never known he was back. You would think after everything we've been through I would get a call when he came back, but no; just like every other time he came back for a visit, he never called me.

I got off the plane and quickly found my bag and headed to my Mom's in a cab. If I was lucky, I could drop my bag off in the garage and grab my two spare guns I had hid in there without my mom ever knowing. The drive to my moms was relatively short. Sure enough I was able to sneak in and out of the garage without being detected. I just had to "borrow" a car and I would be on my way. Once I found a car to my liking, I headed out toward the middle of town where I knew Michael was based on the phone tracking app Harold had designed and downloaded for me. Turns out Michael decided to get himself in a little bit of trouble since he's been back, but that's Michael for you. I would have thought that after all of the years he spent saving people he would stop causing trouble.

After a ten minute drive I arrived at a garage where the app said Michael was and sure enough he was there with a woman about my age who I'm assuming is Michael's girlfriend and a guy that looked like he enjoyed the whole Miami vibe way too much. I pulled over on the opposite side of the road where I had a clear view of the shop, but was also out of sight for anyone in the garage. I tied my long brown hair into a braid and got out of the car. Michael and his girlfriend were handcuffed and being held at gunpoint while Hawaiian shirt guy was handcuffed to a cabinet and out cold. They were in some serious trouble just from the looks of it and it was about to get a lot worse.

"I don't know who you guys are, but no one breaks into my shop and gets away with it." Said one of the guys with a gun.

Michael started to explain something, but the other guy just hit him in the head with the butt of his gun. The head honcho looking dude turned toward the guy who just hit Mike and said "Kill them and get rid of the bodies. I don't want to deal with any of this or the police Smitty."

Then Smitty turned toward Mike and raised his gun. I had to do something, I couldn't let Michael and his friends get killed on my watch so I did the only thing I could think of. I pulled out my sniper rifle, placed it on the hood of the car and shot Smitty right in the knee before he could shoot anyone and then before head honcho man could figure out what was going on, I shot him in the knee too. They were both rolling around on the ground in pain meaning they weren't going to be a problem. Mike and his girlfriend got up while looking around for the shooter and the girl grabbed the keys from the head honcho guy and un cuffed herself and Michael. Then she ran over to uncuff Hawaiian shirt dude, who had woken up from the sound of gunshots. Mike and his friends then grabbed their guns and started to walk out of the garage, guns held high. I figured now would be a good time to announce my presence so I walked out towards them. Before I could do anything the woman had me pinned to the ground yelling at me.

"Who are you and why were you shooting at us? If you don't tell me right now I'll shoot you!"

I do have to say she was pretty intimidating, but I turned my head toward Mike and said, "Michael you think you can tell your girlfriend to get off of me?" Michael looked shocked and realization crossed his face.

"Lauren? What are you doing here?" Michael asked sounding pretty confused and slightly surprised.

Hawaiian shirt dude and the women looked confused and asked, "Mike you know this girl?"

Mike sighed and said "Yeah she's my sister."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2: MEET THE TWIN**

"Uh Mikey... You have a sister?" Hawaiian shirt guy asked while the girl just looked really confused. Michael stared at me and nodded his head. Mike's girlfriend then decided it would be a good time to let me go and help me off of the ground. I was even angrier than before, how could he not tell his friends that he had a sister? Was I that bad of sibling growing up?

I turned around toward the gang and looked straight at Michael angrily and said , "Wow Mike you never told your friends that you had a sister, let alone a twin? Who does that? Oh, and you think your girlfriend would be a lot nicer to someone who just saved her ass back there."

I saw the change in Mike's eyes immediately; he went straight from confused to pissed in a matter of seconds. Everyone was about to witness my father's part of Michael that was always inside of him no matter how much he denied it and that scared me; but I guess you get used to it when all your brother wants to do is protect people. "Lauren, why are you here and why did you shoot up that garage?!"

"First of all I didn't just shoot up the garage I saved your lives back there!"

"We had everything handled! You didn't have to come in a shoot two guys! You had no business..." Mike was so angry.

"No business? You and your friends were about to get killed back there and you wanted me to do nothing? How can you even say that? You're my brother for god's sake, whether you like it or not."

"Lauren, that's not what I.. "

I couldn't listen to Mike yell at me for nothing anymore. I cut him off mid sentence, "Save it Michael I'm tired of all of these excuses that seem to appear every time you come home. By the way I'm in Miami to see you. Even though no one bothered to call me just every other time you came back, Mom even calls Nate when you come home, but I never seem to get that call. Every time I ask about why no one called me everyone has an excuse and I'm tired of it!"

"Whoa whoa whoa. Why don't we all just calm down and head back to the loft where we can all introduce ourselves and sort this all out?" Hawaiian shirt guy decided to intervene in our little sibling fight.

"Sam I don't think.."

I turned toward the guy Mike called Sam and said "I think that's a great idea". While eying Michael out of the corner of my eye and boy was he pissed I just agreed to get to know his friends.

For the ride to Michael's I was forced to drive with Sam that way everyone could cool down a bit which I guess was a good idea. It may have been a good idea, but I was still pissed. I still can't believe Mike never told his friends about me. That was Michael's fault though, no sense in taking it out on his friend. Therefore, I decided that since I was going to be in the car with Sam for a while I may as well try to make the most of it.

"So Sam how do you know my brother?" I asked. It seemed like an innocent enough first question.

Sam looked at me out of the corner of his eye and sighed before he answered " Mike and I met a long time ago when our paths crossed during work."

"Let me guess during some classified mission that neither one of you are allowed to discuss?" Sam just nodded. Even though Sam agreed that they met on a classified mission, I could tell Sam wasn't an agency guy. He had more of an air of a some branch of the military type guy. I guess that's something I would learn in time, considering it seemed as though as long as I was in Miami this wouldn't be the last time I would see Sam.

We stayed in silence until Sam decided it was too uncomfortable. "So how did you learn to steal a car or better yet to shoot a gun like that?"

"You learn a lot of things growing up in the Westen household like hot wiring cars, but I learned to shoot during my days at the FBI." I said proudly. Yes, that's right, I'm proud I can fire a number of weapons and hot wire cars, along with some other illegal activities I'm good at.

Sam looked shocked at the fact that I used to be an FBI agent. Although I assume he was also surprised that I was a Westen that actually did something good with their life like my brother and Mike never even mentioned me before. A questioning look crossed his face before he asked his next question. "You're a little young to be retired, how come you're not with the Bureau anymore?"

"Look I'm going to have to explain this to Mike too, so I'll give you the abbreviated version for now. I did something they didn't agree with so they put me on permanent desk duty and I couldn't live like that so I quit."

Sam chuckled. "You did something a government agency didn't like? I guess you really are a Westen."

I laughed. Sam was right, us Westen's always seem to be doing something illegal or questionable. Sam seemed to be an alright guy and I could tell he felt pretty bad about the situation even though it wasn't his fault. I couldn't wait to get to the loft and sort out everything. I just hoped that Michael would have a good explanation as to why he kept me a secret for all of these years and why everyone seemed to want to keep me away from him. I may be really mad at Mike, but I never liked fighting with him as kid and even after all of these years I apparently still didn't like fighting with my twin.

We had already been driving for 25 minutes and we still hadn't arrived at Mike's loft. We were still driving towards the center of town and that really surprised me. I never pictured Mike as the type of person to live in the busy part of Miami, but I guess a lot can change when you haven't seen someone in years. 10 minutes later we were pulling into the alleyway for some club. I was so confused until I saw Mike get out of his car and unlock the gate on the side. Of course my brother would pick a nicely hidden place in the middle of town; in the middle of the action, but far enough away not to draw attention to his comings and goings. Smart


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3: THE LOFT OF BROTHERLY LOVE**

Once Sam parked the car, we headed up the stairs following Mike and his girlfriend. I was starting to get nervous. I really wanted answers, but I guess I was afraid of what those answers might be. I was the last one to walk up the stairs to Michael's loft. It was just as I expected it to be; carrying only the bare essentials and i'm guessing some hidden weapons all over for easy access. I continued to look around until Mike mentioned for me to join them in the little kitchen/ living room. I walked over to them and took a seat next to Sam before Mike started talking.

"Okay so first off that's Sam, but i'm assuming he already introduced himself…"

Mike couldn't even finish his sentence before Sam felt the need to interrupt, "Of course I did Mikey!"

Mike gave Sam an annoyed look before he continued, "This is Fiona, and she's not my girlfriend, but let's just say it's complicated. Sam, Fiona, this is my sister Lauren." Fiona smiled and gave me a nod hello.

I decided that since he was finally introducing me to his friends I should give them the whole picture "Ahum, twin sister."

"Yes, my twin sister. Lauren do you want to talk about yourself or maybe why you're not in D.C. and at work?" Of course he just had to point that out. I was going to have to explain to everyone why I no longer had a job. I really wasn't ready to tell Mike, especially after our little argument earlier, but I guess it was now or never.

"Fine. So I guess I should start from the beginning of this whole work debacle. After Michael decided to join the Army, I went to college in New York and got a masters degree in criminal justice. Around the time Mike went into the CIA, I joined the FBI."

I turned towards Mike before I said the answer to the question I know he was thinking .

"Yes Mike I know you used to work for the CIA don't look so surprised." Mike just shook his head in response.

"During my time at the bureau, I worked in a bunch of different units. Last year we were working a case that involved some missing children in Washington State. Long story short we went to search the suspect's home and when he wasn't there, we went to his storage unit. When we got there the suspect had his gun out and decided he was going to point the gun at us so we would shoot him. One of the other agents noticed that the storage container was empty and we had no idea where the kids could be, so we needed the suspect alive, however, when you wave a gun around a bunch of federal agents they plan on shooting you. So I did the one thing I could think of… I shot him in the knee cap. That way he could still tell us where the children were. It worked, he eventually told us where they were and we saved them. My boss didn't like my idea of shooting a suspect in the knee since you're trained to shoot to kill, but it worked. I got a warning for that situation, even though I saved those kids."

I looked at Mike to see what his reaction would be and I was sorry I did. As soon as he realized I wasn't telling him the whole story he got mad. "Lauren, that doesn't explain how you don't have a job. You said you only got a warning."

Of course the former CIA agent would catch a mistake in wording that small. I shook my head and proceeded to tell Mike the rest of the story.

"Okay okay! I may have shot another suspect in the knee during a similar situation."

"Lauren! Why would you do that?!" Michael was pissed.

"Oh come on Mike, tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing in order to save those innocent lives! You worked for the Agency for fucks sake. They're like the kings of torturing suspects in order to get information to save lives! I just did it more humanely." Apparently, that sent Michael over the edge; he was fuming.

"Lauren shooting a man in the knee cap is not humane!"

"But torturing a man by beating him up, cutting him, or breaking his fingers until he talks is better right? Or is it only better because you were ordered to do it?" That was it, I needed to get out of there and have time to myself. I got up and walk right out of my brothers loft, I couldn't really go anywhere so I just sat on one of the bottom steps to cool down.

How could he not agree with what I did? All Mike wanted to do in life was save lives and there he was saying that I did the wrong thing even though I saved multiple lives. Of all the people in the world, I would have thought that Michael would have been the one to understand and agree with what I did. I was so disappointed, I came back to Miami to finally get to talk to with Michael again and be close just like we were when we were younger. Instead all we've done has been fight. Ugh, I really hated feeling like this. Maybe I should have just stayed in New York with Harold. At least he was happy to see me, he even offered me a job.

I heard the door to the loft open after I had been sitting outside for about a half hour. I didn't even turn around to see who was coming, I just figured it would be Sam. To my surprise it was Michael who walked down the steps and sat down next to me.

"Hey"

"Hey. Look I really didn't mean to argue with you all day, but you really took me by surprise at the garage earlier. When I heard those shots and saw that only the garage owners were shot, I never expected to see my sister with a sniper rifle on somebody's stolen car there to save my ass." Michael gave one of his signature smirks.

I laughed. "Okay. So you're telling me Mr. CIA didn't see his sister becoming just like him? Yeah okay Mike. Whatever floats your boat."

Michael actually laughed at that one. This was one of the few times I have actually seen my brother truly laugh at something. I guess we were getting somewhere.

"So are we good now?"

Why Mike thought everything was fine now was beyond me,but all I knew was that I was definitely going to try and fix the rest of the problem with him right now. "Mike, we're better, but not great."

"What do you mean?"

I sighed, of course he didn't understand. "Mike, the reason this fighting started was because I never got to see you when you visited. Nate got a phone call every time you came home for a while, but no one ever called me. I haven't seen you in years and when I finally get to see you, you yell at me and I find out that you never told your friends that you had a sister. I just don't understand why you would do that."

"Ren, you were in college and doing great without us, there was no reason for me to call you home to bring up all of those horrible memories. Nate's younger and he doesn't remember all of the bad things that happened at home. He looks up to me, I couldn't deny him the chance to see me. As for the reason I never told my friends about you, I didn't tell my friends about a lot of things. The only reason they know about Nate is that he was in trouble and when I was on leave Sam happened to be there when I got the call. I needed to tell him something so I had to tell him about Nate. I never meant to upset you Lauren, I am so sorry."

"I believe you Mike, but I can't understand how you thought you were doing me a favor by letting me stay at college. I couldn't wait to see you when you came home for leave,but then nobody ever called me about when you were coming home, I thought maybe you died and no one wanted to tell me. I honestly didn't know what to think and then I started to find out that you had come home a couple of times, but no one told me. I miss you Michael, I want to be as close as we were when we were little, I miss that."

"I miss you too Ren. I always worried about how you were doing out in New York by yourself,but after this morning, I know that I didn't have to worry. Now did I?" Michael joked.

I smiled. "No I guess you didn't


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY "DEAD" FRIEND**

Mike and I walked up the stairs to loft and headed inside to talk to Sam and Fiona. They kind of needed to know that we had patched things up during our talk outside. When we entered the loft Sam and Fiona were still in the same spots as I had left them in except Sam was now nursing a beer and Fiona was eating a yogurt; probably a blueberry one, my brother's favorite. They were definitely surprised when Michael and I walked in together without yelling at one another.

"So I guess this means that you two worked everything out and there's not going to be anymore yelling?" Sam stated and then proceeded to take a sip of his beer.

"Yes we did work everything out, but I can't promise that there won't be any arguing" I joked.

Fiona and Sam laughed at my comment. Then Fiona had a questioning look come across her face before she asked me the one question I hoped no one would bother to ask. "Hey Lauren I've been wondering, how did you know Mike was home or better yet at that garage? We never told anyone we were going there."

I sighed. I had to figure out how to explain that a friend of mine who everyone thinks is dead, is great with computers and managed to hack into the CIA's database and find out that Mike was burned. Then somehow found an active cell phone number for him and tracked him all the way to that garage. Great.

"Okay so when I quit my job, I went to New York to find an old friend of mine that I met when I was in college. I knew he had fallen off the grid, but I took a guess as to where I could find him. I found him and talked to him about my situation and tried to get some advice. He's good with computers so he hacked into the CIA database and found out that you were blacklisted and that they dropped you in Miami. Somehow he found the number of the cell phone you were using and downloaded a tracking app on my phone, taught me how to use it, and he sent me on my way here to find you."

Mike looked really confused. I was pretty sure he was confused by my whole explanation because I mean, it was a pretty far fetched idea and he didn't even know the half of it. "Lauren I am so confused right now. How did you meet a hacker while in college for criminal justice? That doesn't even make sense. And what do you mean fell off the grid?"

Sam and Fiona just stared at Mike and I during our little conversation. They seemed to be pretty confused by it all as well. "Well I kind of wanted to learn a little bit about computers and hacking in my free time and I happened to find Harold and by fell off the grid I mean everyone thinks he is dead, because he wants a whole lot of people to think he's gone. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself." I smiled as I told them the answers they wanted. I missed Harold when I went into the FBI and I remember how happy I was when I had found him and when he had offered me a job earlier this week. I guess I kind of miss him already.

"Well you're being unsurprisingly vague about your friend from New York, Lauren. Why don't you at least tell us his name or why so many people are out to get him." Mike looked like he was starting to get mad and annoyed.

"Uh, well his name is Harold and I can't really tell you why so many people are after him." This was probably the weakest answer i've given all day,or even probably my whole life, but there really was nothing I could tell them. Harold's secret was his and if I tell Mike and his friends, there's always the chance someone else will find out about Harold.

"Lauren, why can't you just tell us why he's in trouble? If you tell us we can help him." Michael just had to negotiate didn't he. Why couldn't he just let it go?

"Mike, I just can't tell you guys, Okay? Why do you have to push it so much? Look, if I tell you guys there's a chance the government will find out and hunt Harold down. I can't let that happen." I must of had a really sad look on my face or I sounded pretty panicky, because Mike just sighed in result of my answer.

"Okay Lauren, I won't press you anymore. It seems to me that this Harold means a lot to you and his situation is pretty serious if the government is involved." Mike sounded very understanding to my feelings for once.

Fiona actually decided to speak up since almost starting another sibling fight between Michael and I. "Mike I'm beat. I'm going to go, i'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah Mikey, me too. Besides, Elsa is probably wondering where I am." With that Sam gave us one of those looks that told me Elsa was most definitely Sam's girlfriend.

"See you tomorrow Fi. Bye Sam." Mike waved goodbye to his friends as they turned to walk out of the door.

Sam and Fiona turned around and said goodbye to me right before they walked out of the loft. I finally had some time to talk to Mike alone. I was thinking about what I was going to ask Mike first, when I realized I had no where to stay. I turned to Mike and said, "Hey Mike? I haven't talked to Mom yet and I really don't want to rent a hotel room. I really hate to ask but, could I crash on your couch for a few days?" I gave Mike my famous puppy dog eyes that always seemed to work on him.

"Yeah no problem Ren. I'll take the couch and you can take my bed. And don't you dare argue the fact; you will sleep in the bed." He threw me a stern look that told me there really was no arguing with him.

Mike went upstairs to the little loft area in the loft to get changed and to lay down to go to bed. How ironic. I can only imagine what his face is going to look like after I ask him for some clothes to sleep in. "Hey bro you want to lend me some sweats and a t-shirt or am I going to have to sleep naked? I left my bag in Mom's garage earlier."

I started laughing as soon as the realization crossed his face. Mike rushed his words out when he responded, "Yeah yeah, sorry. There's pants and t-shirts in that drawer right next to you."

It was going to be fun messing with Michael for the next few days while I stayed with him


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: KICKING-ASS**

I woke up to the sound of grunting and a loud banging sound every so often. I groaned, it could only be like 5 am, why was there so much noise? Rolling over to my back, I sat up and saw Mike working out by using a punching bag. Why did he have to work out so early in the morning?

"Mike I get that you need to stay in shape for all the ladies, but do you have to work out so early in the morning?"

He stopped punching the bag and turned toward me before answering. "Lauren this is when I wake up, I can't help it and I'm surprised you can be that sarcastic this early without coffee." Michael smiled.

"I'll have you know I'm this funny all the time. Even without coffee." I stated.

I rolled out of bed and walked to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and to my surprise there was actually a few different flavors of yogurt; not just blueberry. I guess my brother was branching out of his comfort zone. Opening the drawer next to the fridge to find a spoon, I found a glock hidden in the back. Okay so maybe he was just coming out of his food comfort zone. I laughed.

Mike stopped punching and turned towards me when he heard me laugh. "What's so funny Ren?"

"I didn't realize you liked to eat your yogurt with a glock Mike." I laughed even harder after saying that out loud.

Mike cracked a smile when he responded with, "Ha ha very funny Lauren."

He walked over to the fridge and grabbed a blueberry yogurt out and then a spoon before heading over to sit in the chair.

"So Mike, you still into all that self defense and hand to hand combat stuff, even though you're not working anymore?"

Mike gave me an annoyed look. "Of course I am, why?"

"Well, when I was with the bureau, they only taught us some hand to hand and I was wondering if you would help me to advance my skill and become a pro like you." Man I sure was laying it on thick to Mike. But I really wanted to learn self defense like the agency teaches, especially if I was going to seriously consider Harold's job offer.

I could see Mike thinking it over in his head; weighing the pros and cons of teaching me. "Yeah sure why not." I can't believe he actually said yes.

"Thank you so much Mike. Now I can really be just as much of a bad ass as you are." I smiled

Mike laughed before saying, "Yeah I guess I'm pretty bad ass. Although I'm not sure how much more of a bad ass you could be considering what you did yesterday, but okay. Let's start after we finish eating."

…..

Four hours later and Mike and I were still at it. He had successfully taught me all of the basics of the CIA training program. I was surprising myself. I was pretty good at the whole hand to hand combat thing; well at least I was better than Mike and I had thought I was going to be.

"Okay Ren, I think this is going to be the last time for today I'm beat." Mike said in between breathes.

"Oh Mr. CIA is tired already? It's only been what four hours?" I joked.

Mike and I were going back and forth throwing punches and blocking each other's shots when he made a small mis step that I noticed. Before Mike even realized he made a mistake I had him pinned to the ground. "Take that bro! I just took down a trained spy!"

Before Mike could say anything Sam spoke up from out of nowhere, "Dude your sister just took you down! I don't think anyone has ever beaten you."

Mike and I both jumped at the sound of Sam's voice. Neither one of us even realized he had walked into the loft.

"Whoa Sam, when did you get here?" Mike asked, clearly shaken up from being taken by surprise by the both of us.

Sam laughed, "I've been here almost five minutes. You two were a little busy when I came in so I decided to just watch you two go at it. Wow Lauren I can't believe you took down your brother by the way. That was great taking advantage of his misstep like that."

"Thanks Sam!" I said smiling.

"Mike, I think she might been more hardcore than Fiona, if that's even possible."

"Okay, okay! Can we stop talking about how my sister took me down already? What are you doing here Sam?" Michael said with a slightly angry tone.

"Well, Elsa had some stuff to do and I didn't want to sit at her house all by myself so I decided to come here. Oh, and I might have accidently told Madaline that Lauren was in town. Please don't kill me!" Sam said nervously with his hands up in the air.

"Sam! Why would you do that?" Boy was I angry. He had no right.

Mike looked at me questionably, "Lauren you still never told mom you were in Miami? What were you thinking?"

"Mike, you know how she can be. If I told her, all I would be doing is driving her around or coming over because the coffee maker stopped working. Besides, I wasn't sure how long I was going to be staying."

Michael looked like he understood what I was saying and then all of a sudden he looked confused. I had no idea what he could be confused about when it came to mom. He probably did the same thing when he first came home. "What do you mean you don't know how long you're staying for? I thought you quit your job."

Okay, it made sense now. "Look, I didn't know if I was going to actually find you or not when I came here or what was going to happen when I did find you. Before I left New York, Harold offered me a job; a job that I would actually like. I told him I wasn't sure if I was going to take it or not, but I know he really wants me to. Therefore, I didn't know how long I would actually be in town. I didn't want to visit mom unless I was staying for at least a week."

"Okay Ren, I guess that makes sense. And there is no way you are working for this Harold guy. Especially not since the government is after him."

I was so angry. How could Michael even say that? He was a spy; everyone is after him. "Hey! I'm going to take the job if I want to. I can make my own decisions Mike, I'm not a child."

"Lauren it's way too dangerous."

"And your job wasn't? Besides I was in the FBI remember? Look we'll talk about this later, I have to go visit mom before she starts blowing up everyone's phones looking for me. Thanks Sam." I said with an attitude, I turned to leave when I realized I had no way to get to my moms.

"I'm really sorry Lauren. I thought Maddy knew you were here" Sam said sincerely.

I smiled when a thought came to me. "Sam if you really are sorry, how about you lend me your car, so I can go to my moms." I gave Sam my best sad puppy face and batted my eyelashes.

"Man your sisters good Mike. Just don't scratch it okay?." Sam said as he threw me the keys to his caddy.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N** Sorry for the late update guys, schools been kicking my ass ~NJVigilante

 **Chapter 6: THE CALL**

The trip to my moms was surprisingly short. I think that might have been the shortest trip to my moms after not being home for so long ever. She was really happy to see me though and only slightly mad that I never told her I was coming to Miami. I guess when you're a convincing liar, it makes things a lot easier when it comes to family. I mean all I had to do was say how I was so tired from my trip, that I just crashed at Mike's as soon as I got to Florida and she believed it; well mostly at least.

Now I was on my way back to the loft to have that chat with Mike. I was not looking forward to that at all. Like of course he would say that Harold's job offering was too dangerous for me even though he was a spy. Maybe I should call Harold and try to get an idea about what I can tell Mike and what I can't. I mean I can't really go around telling people that the government has a super computer that is watching our every move and Harold has access to it, now can I?

After debating it in my head for a while, I decided that I would go to the beach and make that phone call before I got back to Mike's. A nice, busy, open spot where no one would be listening in on my conversation or paying attention to me.

I pulled into a spot in the nearest parking lot and pulled out my cell phone. Scrolling through the few contacts I had, I clicked on the contact titled H and clicked dial. I didn't realize how nervous I would be making this phone call until now. On the fourth ring Harold picked up.

"Ms. Westen?"

"Yeah it's me Harold."

"Is everything alright? I didn't expect to be hearing from you so soon." Harold sounded worried.

"Everything's fine Harold. I found Mike and told him about your job offer, but he doesn't like the idea. I wasn't sure what I should actually tell him about this job without saying too much or too little."

"I didn't expect him to be okay with the idea,however, i'm glad you are considering it. I would tell him that you have the ability to save people before they get hurt. You'd be saving lives, just like he did, but without the help of the government. If he asks, you get the information from secret sources that you don't have access to. It might also help to tell him how much you like the idea or how much you want this job or something along those lines." Harold explained to me.

"Thanks Harold. You always seem to give the best advice. I'm going to be speaking with my brother in a little while. I guess i'll text you how it goes."

"Okay. And Ms. Westen, you may find comfort in knowing that I have found a new person to do the heavy lifting so to speak. Meaning that if you choose to accept my offer, you will not be working alone."

"Okay Harold. Thanks again. And will you stop calling me Ms. Westen already."

"I'll try Lauren. Good luck with Michael." Then the phone line went dead.

I was feeling less overwhelmed after that phone call. I think I know what to say to Michael when we talk later. Now all I had to do was get back to the loft.

…..

I pulled into the club's lot and pulled over expecting to have to unlock the gate, but it was already open. This didn't seem right. I parked Sam's car right outside the gate, pulled out my gun from my waistband and walked slowly towards the gate. Once I saw no one was in the backyard area, I cautiously walked through the gate, keeping my gun held in the air. I finally reached the top of the stairs to the loft and noticed the door was unlocked. Now that's something Mike would never do. Preparing myself for a fight, I kicked the door open and held my gun up ready to shoot, only to find my brother and Sam sitting down drinking beers. They both jumped when they saw me bust in the door with my gun.

"Oh, sorry guys" I said trying to sound nonchalant.

Sam and Mike just laughed at me.

"The gate was open and the door was unlocked when I got back and I was afraid someone broke in or something."

Mike laughed again, "I know, we left the gate and the door open to see what you would do."

"So you were testing me?" Anger oozing from my voice.

"Yeah. You passed though. If i'm going to let you work with Harold, I had to make sure you could read and handle an unexpected situation and you did."

"Wait, so you were testing me just so you could okay me to work with Harold? Something you really have no choice over?" I was starting to get extremely angry.

"Look Ren, I could tell that you want to take this job and it's extremely dangerous, i'm assuming, from what you have told me. I wasn't okay with it when you first told me, but Sam helped me see that it truly is your decision. I just wanted to see how well you handle yourself so I can worry a little less if you decide to take the job, that's all."

"Okay Mike. I guess I see your point. So you don't care if I take the job?"

"No. If you want to do it, who am I to stand in your way. Can you just stay in town for a little while? I kinda missed not seeing you all these years." Mike said sheepishly.

"Big bad Michael missed his sister? Awe how sweet." I responded while chuckling


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Hey guys, finally made it to the start of all POI! I decided to update early since I had some free time. As always, hope you enjoy and don't forget to review! ~NJVigilante

 **Chapter 7: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND**

Three months. Three months i've lived with Michael. Three months i've helped my brother and his friends help people. Three months i've lived in the Miami heat. And boy was I tired of being around Michael all the time. Throughout the last three months Mike and I have been trying to make up for lost time in between helping people. It's been great, except for the fact that I live with Mike and i'm with him basically all day, everyday. I wanted to get close to Mike, just not this close.

After being around my brother this much, i've definitely picked up on some of his habits that he got from working with the agency and the army. For example, the way he keeps his house so clean and how he stores weapons all over the place. You're never standing further than five feet from a weapons in his loft. His sheets are so tight on the bed it looks like prison corners on the bed. Which in a way is nice, until you try to sleep in the bed and the sheets won't untuck.

One thing that I caught myself doing now is looking around like Mike always does. He's always using counter surveillance no matter where he is and now so do I. Lastly, my brother and I never sit in a restaurant or a public place with our backs to the door. You always sit facing a door so you can see who comes and who goes. You never want to get caught off guard. Being around Mike for this long makes me feel like i'm becoming paranoid. I guess this is what it feels like to be a spy or a wanted fugitive for that matter.

I was definitely ready to go back to New York and start my work with Harold. I needed to get away from Mike and Miami for a while. I'm sure Michael was ready to have his home back to himself for a while too. That way he could spend some alone time with Fiona.

Michael was already out with Sam this morning scouting for their new job. I had peace and quiet to pack all my things in. It was actually really nice to not hear yelling, arguing, or gunfire for once. I was almost all packed to leave, even though I still had two days left in Miami. All I had to pack were my toiletries and a few items of clothing. Sadly, I had to leave all of my weapons with Michael. I really hope Harold has enough spending money because I was going to need to buy a lot of new guns.

The ringing of my phone broke me out of my thoughts. Ugh, what could Mike possibly need? I was surprised to see H pop up on the caller ID. This probably wasn't good. Harold only really called if there was a problem.

"Hello"

"Ms. Westen?"

"Yeah, what's up Harold?"

"Uh are you all packed already by any chance?" Harold said with slight worry in his voice.

"Just about. Is everything okay?"

"It seems that my associate has gotten himself into a bit of trouble and I was hoping you could fly out here like now to help him."

"Sure Harold, but how am I supposed to fly out right now?"

"You should know me better by now Ms. Westen. I have hired a private pilot to fly you out here as soon as you are ready."

"Okay Harold. I'll be in New York ASAP."

"Thank you Ms. Westen." Harold hung up the phone.

At some point during my phone call, Mike walked in. "Mike i'm leaving sooner than expected."

"Okay Ren, how much sooner and what happened?"

"Like right now soon. And Harold's associate needs help so he called to see if I could got to New York and help now."

"Oh. Okay. I guess this is goodbye then." I walked over to Mike and gave him a big hug which he gladly returned. After he released me I walked over and grabbed my remaining stuff and threw it in my bag. Right before I walked out the door I turned around to take one last look at the loft. I was going to miss this place a little. Lastly, I turned towards Mike and said, "Bye, Michael. I'll talk to you soon" and walked out the door.

I was finally going to New York to start my new job.

…..

Two hours later and I had landed in the Big Apple. Of course Harold also had a car waiting for me when I left the airport. The driver dropped me off two blocks away from the library and I walked right to the building and up it's stairs as fast as I could.

When I got to the top, Harold was sitting behind a desk with a bunch of computers. He turned towards me as soon as he heard me come up the stairs.

He greeted me with his signature "Hello Ms. Westen."

"Hey Harold, where does your associate store his extra guns and magazines?"

"Oh uh right behind you those drawers. I'm not sure he's going to like you using his weapons, but we are short on time I suppose."

While I looked through the drawers to find the weapons I wanted, I asked Harold where I could find his associate.

"His last location was in a warehouse near the East River."

"Okay."

As I continued to go through all of the weapons I decided to take a sniper rifle with a scope and a glock with a silencer, along with some extra magazines for each; my favorite weapons. Now all I needed was a car. I turned around to ask Harold for keys to a car, but he was already holding out a set of keys for me along with an earpiece.

"You're always prepared aren't you? Now do I finally get a name for your associate?"

"Yes. His name is John and he'll be wearing a suit."

With that I grabbed the earpiece and keys and ran out the door. When I reached the garage, I unlocked the car door, placed my weapons inside, and got in. Once I was settled in, I put the earpiece in and drove off towards the river.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Sorry for the short chapter, ill hopefully be updating again later in the week. Enjoy! ~NJvigilante

 **Chapter 8: REESE, JOHN REESE:**

On my way to the warehouse, I weaved in and out of traffic driving to the warehouse as fast as possible. It definitely helped that Harold was giving me directions through the earpiece as I drove. I was still pretty new to driving around New York and didn't really know where I was going. I'd be the one to get lost on a rescue mission.

After a 15 minute drive I arrived at the building that John was supposedly in. A quick survey of the building told me that there were no windows so there was no way I was going to use the sniper rifle. That also meant that I would be walking in blind; which was never a good thing. I would have no idea how many gunmen were even in the building or where John was. Great.

I grabbed the glock 21 and it's extra magazines; slipped them into my pocket and pointed the gun in front of me, while holding it at my side. I walked towards the door that looked like the best option to enter in; on the side in an alley where no passers bys would be looking. I decided that listening to see if I could hear anything would be smart before I just busted through the door.

At first all I heard was some moaning and a few grunts. Great. They were probably torturing John in there and I was going to have to break it up. Then all of a sudden I heard three gunshots. That was it, it was go time.

There was a lock on the door so I took the silencer out of my pocket, screwed it on, and shot the lock. It broke immediately, I turned off my earpiece so I didn't have to hear Harold complain or worry, held my gun up and kicked in the door.

When I walked in the door all I saw was five men lying on the ground. Three were shot and two were just unconscious. How on earth does that even happen? Before I could move any further into the building I got punched in the eye and disarmed of my gun. I turned toward the man and punched him right in the chest; he grunted, I disarmed him of his weapon, and he tried to punch me again. I blocked his punch this time and tried to attack back. There was no way I was going to let this guy beat me up. He kept blocking my blows and trying to hit me back, he was definitely well trained. I could tell the man was getting annoyed that he couldn't land a punch to me. I was getting frustrated myself, how could I not beat this guy already? Then I realized that the mystery man was wearing a suit. He must be John.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Are you John?" I asked blocking another punch from mystery man.

He looked surprised, backed up, and answered with "Who are you?"

"I'll take that as a yes. I'm Harold's friend Lauren, i'm assuming he's told you at least something about me. Although knowing him, he probably only told you my name."

John cracked a small smile and said, "Yeah i'm John. I guess Finch sent you here to save me?"

"Pretty much, but I guess he didn't have to." I joked.

"He gets a little paranoid if he doesn't hear from me for a while. Sorry about your eye." He said walking towards me. "Ooo yeah i'm really sorry."

"I'm gonna have a black eye aren't I? Sorry about your rib, I think I might have broke it." I said with a sad look.

He touched his rib and winced. "Yeah you broke it." he laughed.

"Let's go back to the library before Finch decides he needs to come save us himself." John said as he turned to walk away to pick up both of our guns. When he got to mine he picked it up and turned towards me, "Wait, is this _my_ glock 21?"

"Yeah Harold let me raid your gun storage." John just gave me a hard look. "Okay! I raided your gun drawer, but I needed something if I was going to come and get you" I answered defensively.

John cracked a smile, "Fine, but did you have to take my favorite gun?"

"It's my favorite too. And if it was your favorite, why didn't you have it with you?"

"Touche."

After that John and I walked back to my car. I got in the driver's side while he got in the passengers. John had to move his sniper rifle out of the way to be able to sit. Once he saw it he just shook his head. "My sniper rifle _with_ the scope? Really?"

I turned towards John while I started the car. "What? I come prepared."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: BACK IN THE H.Q.**

On the way back to the library I decided I should probably let Harold know that I picked up John. I clicked the earpiece back on and waited a few seconds until I heard Harold's voice.

"Ms. Westen. Are you alright? The phone went dead."

"Yeah I'm good Harold. I got John and we're on our way back now."

"Okay. See you when you guys get back." Harold clicked the line off after that.

John turned toward me and with a sly smirk asked, "Turned the earpiece off so Finch wouldn't yell about shooting the lock outside the building?"

"Yeah... I know I probably shouldn't have done it, but he was nervous since it was technically my first rescue mission." I said

"First mission huh? How did you fight like that if it was your first mission? No one just knows how to fight like that," John said, trying to pry for answers.

I smiled, "My first mission with Harold. And nice try. You can't get me to spill my secrets that easily, Mr. CIA."

John looked surprised, well as surprised as an agent would look I suppose. "Yeah I was in the CIA, I guess Finch told you?"

"No Harold wouldn't even tell me your name until today. You gave it away by your fighting style and the suit" I joked.

"Yeah we do wear suits a lot don't we? I don't know you, so you weren't in the agency, so how did you know that my fighting was agency or better yet how did you fight like that?" John asked a little more nicely.

"A little cocky aren't we? You think you know everyone that was in the CIA? I'll tell you though, but only because I figured out you were agency. My brother was a spy and he taught me how to fight." I answered proudly.

John immediately asked, "Who's your brother?"

I purposely evaded his question. I wasn't sure if I was ready to disclose who my brother was. "Oh look, we're back at the library." John just shook his head.

I parked and when we got out, John grabbed the rifle, but I quickly took it from his hands. "I broke your rib. No need to be carrying heavy things" I said while walking away.

When we got to the main room Harold turned towards us.

"I guess there were enough of people to take care of in there Ms. Westen." He said after noticing my eye, that was already starting to black and blue.

I laughed. "No John handled them all before I got in there, but I apparently looked like a threat to John over there."

"Don't worry Finch, she broke my rib after that, so we're pretty even." John explained

"Oh dear." Harold looked slightly horrified.

"Yeah no worries Finch. I can handle my own, even if the guy I'm saving gives me a hard time." I said, eyeing John.

"You could have been working with them or HR, for all I knew."

"HR?" I asked. Slightly confused, Harold never mentioned that organization to me before.

"Alright. We'll fill you in tomorrow Ms. Westen. Mr. Reese there is nothing else for today and Ms. Westen you are also free to go, unfortunately your old place is being turned into a safe house and I haven't found you a suitable home yet. " Harold explained with a sad look.

"It's okay Harold. I'll stay at a hotel for tonight."

Harold looked towards John and me and gave us an expression that could only be explained as a mix between pleading and a don't be mad look. "I was hoping Mr. Reese would allow you to stay at his place for tonight."

"Harold, I don't think.." I started to say before John interrupted me.

"Yeah sure, no problem."

That really surprised the hell out of me. And apparently Harold too. He had a surprised look on his face and I don't think I have ever seen Harold look surprised.

"Are you sure? I don't want to impose." I said

"Yeah your good. Besides, my couch is comfortable." John joked


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: LIFE OF CRIME FIGHTING**

The drive to John's apartment was relatively short. Well, minus the whole John trying to pry as much information as he could out of me. Which was just about nothing. I refused to answer his questions until we got to his apartment; that way I could convince him to talk about himself as well. When we walked to the top floor of the apartment building I was a little surprised to see only a few rooms. We walked into the room that was at the end of the hallway and boy was his apartment nice. I knew Harold didn't worry about the cost of things, but still, this place was gorgeous. It was one continuous room with large, ceiling to floor windows overlooking the park. John looked at me and laughed slightly at my amusement.

I walked over and sat down on his couch before I asked my first question. "So John, you want to know all about me? I mean I get it, spies need to know every little detail, but i've lived with a spy; meaning I also want to know every detail. So i'm only sharing if you share too." I said with a smile on my face.

John gave me an annoyed look before he said, "Fine,but i'm asking the first question."

I sighed. I should have known he would want to go first. If this was the only way I was going to get to know my new partner, I guess it would have to do. "Okay. Ask away John."

"You said your brother taught you how to fight, but how did you learn how to shoot a gun?"

"I used to work for the FBI. I learned the basics, but taught myself other guns." I had to think of a question to ask him. I wanted to know so much, but I knew I didn't want to reveal too much about myself and John was probably the same. "How did you come to work for Harold?"

"Finch found me and offered me a job. I thought he was crazy at first, but he convinced me that the machine was real and that I needed a purpose in life. So I took him up on his offer." John had a sad look on his face, that told me he probably wasn't in a good place when Harold found him. "How about you? How do you know Harold?"

"I met him while I was in college in New York. I wanted to learn about computers, hacking and cyber crimes. A professor heard about me wanting to gain knowledge and he had a friend of a friend of a friend, who turned out to be Harold. When I left the FBI, I knew that he had went off the grid, so I took a guess as to where I could find him. I went to the library and there he was. We talked about what he was doing and my predicament; he found out my brother was back in the states, and before I went to go find him, he offered me a job. I said i'd think about it and now three months later here I am. How come you're not with the agency anymore? You don't have to go into detail if you don't want, I know how the CIA can be."

John sighed before answering, "They tried to kill me and my partner when we were on a mission, but I figured it out and got away. They think i'm dead. How come you're not with the bureau anymore?"

"I did something they didn't agree with, so they put me on permanent desk duty. I couldn't live like that, so I quit" I laughed and so did John. "Did you always want to fight crime?"

"I guess so; I just didn't know it. I always hated when people got bullied when I was younger, but I didn't think much about it. Then when I joined the army and then the CIA recruited me because I was good at killing. I realized that I really enjoyed saving people and putting criminals away and I was extremely good at it. It bothered me that I killed so many people, but I enjoyed saving the country, if that's what we were even doing. How about you?"

"When you grow up a Westen, you learn to be a criminal of sorts at a young age I suppose. My twin and I definitely both have that mindset of needing to save everyone, so when he went to the army, I went to school to learn about crime. I needed to be helping people, not becoming the problem. I enjoyed it so much, but I never wanted to be a cop so I joined the FBI. I guess we were both meant to fight crime." I laughed a little and John smiled.

I was beat. After flying all the way here and saving John I was so tired. I couldn't wait to get some sleep. "Hey, I'm beat. Can I have a blanket and maybe a pair of sweats to sleep in? I left all my clothes at the library."

John walked away into a side room, that i'm assuming had his closet in it. He returned with a pair of sweats, a t-shirt and a blanket. "You can take the bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

"No way in hell i'm taking your bed, i'll sleep on the couch." I said.

John gave me an annoyed look, "I can't do that. I'll sleep on the couch."

I was slightly annoyed. Of course he had to be a gentleman. "I broke your rib and there's no way i'm going to make you sleep on a couch with a broken rib."

John gave me that signature CIA stern 'No argueing look'. "My brother was a spy John, you can't intimidate me like that." I chuckled as I went to grab the blanket and clothes out of his hands. Before I could grab anything, he moved so I couldn't reach from where I was standing.

"John. Give me the clothes and the blanket. I know you want to be a gentleman, but seriously, I won't hesitate to break another one of your ribs." I said with my best stern look possible.

"You're going to fight me over who gets to sleep on the couch?" John asked with an amused look.

I laughed, "It is pretty ridiculous right? Fine i'll sleep on the bed, but if I have to stay here tomorrow you get the bed."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:THE NEW YORK LAWYER**

This morning was the first morning in months that I woke up to peace and quiet. It was actually kind of unnerving; nothing making a sound. I was so used to being woken up by Michael working out every morning. I guess Reese didn't work out, but I mean he was in such great shape he had to at some point and he doesn't seem like the type of person to sleep late. So why was it so quiet in here? I got up out of bed and walked around to the couch and to my surprise John wasn't there. I was just about to yell to see if he was even still here, but I caught a glimpse of a note on the kitchen counter. I picked up the note and read it,

L,

New job, left early. Meet at H.Q. Take the car.

R.

Right next to the note were a set of car keys. How nice? At least he left me a way to get to the library, it's not like I'm kinda new to New York and barely know how to get to the library from here or anything. I picked up the keys and went to change when I realized all my clothes were still at the library. Awesome. I was going to have to leave John's apartment dressed in his clothes, that'll look great to anyone who pays attention to who comes and goes out of the building. Not to mention his clothes were too big for me. I grabbed my phone off the table and the set of keys and headed down stairs to the car.

….

Luckily, I made it to the library with no trouble at all. After parking the car, I walked up all the stairs to the top of the library where H.Q was. When I reached the top Reese was holding out a cup of iced coffee for me, and Harold was busy typing away on the computer. At least Harold remembered I only liked iced coffee. I took a sip of coffee and smiled, then I turned towards Harold and said, "Thanks Harold." But before Harold could say anything John said with a fake annoyed look, "I bought the coffee you know."

"Yeah, but there's no way you could know how I like my coffee unless Harold told you, smart guy."

"Wow. You're real sarcastic in the morning." John observed.

Harold finally spoke up, "You get used to it Mr. Reese." He had a kind of surprised/annoyed look on his face when he noticed I was wearing John's clothes.

I laughed, "Relax Harold, I left all of my clothes here last night, so I needed to borrow something to sleep in. Unless, you rather I left John's clothes to himself and I slept naked." Reese stifled a laugh after what I said and then actually laughed after he looked over and saw Harold's face.

"Very well, Ms. Westen. Please get dressed so we can start working."

After I got dressed in a pair of jeans, a black tank top and combat boots, I walked back out into the main room where Harold and Reese were looking at a picture of a woman. "So what's her story?" I asked pointing to the women.

Harold answered, "This is Ms. Cassie Miller, she is a freelance lawyer in the City. Her number came up this morning. I can't seem to find any threats against her, she pays her bills on time, lives alone in a house near New Jersey, she dosen't seem to have grievances against anyone, appears to get along with everyone at work, no arrests, and no outstanding warrants, she seems like a normal working class women from the looks of it."

"A little too perfect if you ask me." John said.

"So I guess we start with surveillance?"

"Sounds like a plan." John said as he turned to his armory to grab a gun.

"Are you going to give me a gun this time, or do I have to go beat up some low life to get one?" I asked walking towards Reese.

Reese smirked, "That doesn't seem like a bad idea, but for now you can just borrow one." He handed me a Wesson Silverback and an extra magazine. I put the gun in the back of my waistband and popped my earpiece in before we headed down the stairs.

Once we arrived at Miller's house, John decided to break the silence, "So is this your first stake out?"

I gave him a hard look before I answered, "No John, I worked for the FBI remember? Of course i've been on stake outs before."

Before he could say anything Harold's voice came through our earpieces, "Ms. Miller should be leaving for work in about an hour. She is due in court at eleven."

"Thanks Harold." I said.

After Harold hung up or got quiet or whatever it is he does, John said, "Oh yeah, I forgot. And you can call me Reese you know. No one really calls me John anymore."

I was so surprised. I never really thought anything about that fact that Harold always calls him Reese and he always says Finch rather than Harold. "Okay, Reese." I smiled, I kind of liked that, it fitted him actually. I handed him the camera before I said, "You can call me whatever you want, I mean Harold always calls me Westen, but lots of people call me Lauren too, or a nickname, whatever suits your fancy." John smirked and responded with an okay. When John looked at me that time, I got a good look at his eyes, and boy did he have nice eyes. I mean they're like blue but silver at the same time with maybe a slight hit of green in this lighting, if that's even possible. They were the nicest eyes i've ever seen on a guy.

Reese broke me out of my thoughts, "What are you looking at?"

I was so confused. I wasn't even looking at anything, I was just thinking about his eyes. "What?"

"You were looking intently at the neighbor's house. I was wondering if there was something I should be looking at." Reese explained.

"Oh, no. I was just lost in thought I guess. It's nice being able to work like this; with no one giving you such strict rules on what you can and can't do." I said, coming up with an excuse about what I was thinking about.

"Yeah. I mean the Agency's only rule was to shoot people and don't ask questions, but it's nice having the option." I laughed. Mike was the same way; he hated killing people.

Before I could say anything, Miller walked out of her house. It was time to actually do something other than sit around. John turned the car on and followed her all the way to the court house. He was having a hard time following her since she drives surprisingly slow for someone who is always in a rush. She parked a block away from the courthouse, and speed walked the rest of the way. Reese and I followed behind her at a good distance so we wouldn't be noticed. Nothing seemed out of the norm so far. When we got to the courthouse, John walked right through the metal detectors and when it went off he flashed a police badge to the guard. Next, I went through the detector and flashed my old FBI badge and walked up to John. "Where the hell did you get an NYPD badge from?"

He just answered with a "You don't want to know."

"Oh I think I do want to know Mr. Reese." I said with a look that said I really did want to know.

"Fine, the short version is a cop was going to have another dirty cop kill me, so I killed the main cop and stole his badge, and then befriended the other cop."

"Of course that happened" I said shaking my head as we followed Miller inside one of the courtrooms. We sat in the back and watched as Miller presented her case for an alleged drug dealer. While we were watching Finch spoke into our earpieces, "Tony Perez, known drug dealer and alleged gang member, recently busted for selling cocaine to minors. I don't think Cassie is a good enough lawyer to get the charges dropped, if i'm being honest based on her past cases. I'm thinking the gang might be after her if she doesn't get the charges dropped on Mr. Perez."

We watched court go on for about an hour and a half before the jury was released to deliberate. By the looks of it, Tony was definitely going to jail. Miller didn't seem to be a good lawyer if I do say so myself. She had somewhat good evidence, but she was not good enough at arguing to make it as a great lawyer.

Reese and I followed her out to a small cafe down the street, where she ordered a sandwich for lunch. She sat down at a table near a window and Reese and I walked towards the back of the cafe, to where we could grab a seat with our backs against the wall. Unfortunately, the table that was open only had one chair with it's back to the wall. I decided that Reese should just take that seat, because knowing him he probably doesn't trust me enough to watch his back like this yet. We were only watching Miller for about ten minutes before I became fidgety. John finally spoke up, "What's wrong with you? You can't even sit still."

"Sorry. I just hate sitting like this. I feel so exposed with my back to the door even though I know that you're keeping watch."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were taught to never sit with your back to a door. I thought that was an agency thing."

"Yeah I guess it is. I've kinda always been like this, but it got worse after living with my brother for three months." I laughed a little.

John smiled, "Yeah that would do it."

Finch said right after that, "Miller just got a call from the courthouse, the jury reached a verdict


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** ** _Hey guys NJvigilante here, thanks for all the story follows, it means a lot. Please continue to read, follow and review._**

 **Chapter 12:AND TAKING NAMES:**

Reese and I made our way back to the courthouse behind Miller. She was definitely in a rush to get back. I wonder if she thought that she was going to win, because from the looks of it she wasn't going to. Walking back into the courtroom, we sat back in the seats we were in before and waited for the judge. The judge came in and told the defendant to rise, and Tony did just that. Next, the judge asked "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

"We have your honor. We find the defendant guilty." Miller looked defeated and Tony just looked mad, however, I could tell he had a small twinkle in his eyes; which was never good.

The rest of the day John and I kept an eye on Miller. All she did was do paperwork in her office. This was probably the most boring mission I have ever been on. There was no indication that the gang was actually a threat to Cassie yet. This was going to take forever at this rate. John and I have been sitting in this car for almost five hours and I have already eaten all of the food we packed, which wasn't much. Reese just kept laughing at me for how quickly I was eating, but I mean come on, who doesn't eat when they're bored?

Finally, around seven Miller decided to leave for the day. She packed up all of her things and headed out to her car, and to our surprise, she drove faster on her way home. I guess she was tired. We followed her to her house and parked across the street again. Reeses and I were arguing about the sleeping schedule for tonight when a man caught my eye. He was dressed in dark colors and had his hood up. I motioned to John to watch the guy. He walked around Miller's house and then walked back to a car down the street. Most people would more than likely assume that it was a false alarm, but we knew better. As soon as the man went back to the car, five more guys got out of the car and ran up to Cassie's house. As we were getting out of the car I said, "Finally some action" and Reese just looked at me.

We decided to split up, I would take the front and Reese would take the back. Once we were ready, John said "Go" into his earpiece and we both busted into the house. Sure enough I was greeted by a man at the door with a gun. Before he could do anything, I shot him in the knee cap. After that, another man can running towards the sound with his gun held high, he didn't even see me when I shot him in the knee too. After taking care of that guy I heard two gunshots and some groaning; now I just had to find Cassie. I walked through the house with my gun held in front of me trying to find Cassie, but I had no idea where she was. I quickly turned a corner and came face to face with a gun. Luckily, before either one of us could do anything I realized it was Reese. I lowered my weapon and so did Reese.

"Where's Miller?"

"I have no idea. Wait! how many guys did you take care of Reese?"

"Three why?

"Shit! There were six guys in total. Only two came after me and no one else is here. The last one must have kidnapped Miller."

"Great."

We ran outside to find that the car was no longer there. This was terrible; we have no idea where they would take her. I clicked my earpiece on and said to Finch, "Finch we lost her. Six guys broke into her house and one kidnapped her. Can you track her phone to see if she still has it with her?"

"I'm on it." He replied.

Reese and I got back into the car before Finch came back and told us that Cassie's phone was still at her house. Reese just sat there looking as I asked him, " So what now? We have no idea what gang this is or where they hid out."

"I think Lionel will be able to help us out with that one."

I was slightly confused. "Who's Lionel?"

Reese smirked, "The dirty cop I befriended." John clicked his earpiece on and dialed a number. In a few seconds, someone answered the other end. "Hello Lionel. I have a job for you. I just sent you a picture of a man with a tattoo, find out what gang it belongs to. Yes Lionel. I'll meet you at the address I sent you in an hour." Reese clicked his earpiece off and turned towards me, "Do you want to call it in?"

"Yeah, What's the number?" He gave me the number for the 8th precinct and I walked to the nearest payphone to make the call.

….

An hour later we were sitting on a bench in some park. Reese didn't want me to go with him to meet Lionel, but I convinced him that I should meet this dirty cop friend of his; so here we are, both sitting on a bench waiting. I was about to ask John what was taking his friend so long, but a chubby man in an ugly colored suit approached us.

"So you found someone else to blackmail?"

"No Lionel, she's here voluntarily. Do you have information for me?"

"Yeah it's all in the file. And seriously? You're spending time with him?" he said pointing towards John.

"We work together. Why's that so hard to believe Detective?" I asked.

"I… Nevermind. I have to go do my real job." And with that Lionel walked away and got into his police cruiser.

"What's the file say?"

After looking through the rest of the file Reese responded to my question with "The guy was a member of a street gang called The Demons. Looks like there's a note in here that says that some members went rogue in the last couple of years. They're probably our guys." John clicked his earpiece "Finch, look up and see if you can find where a rogue part of The Demon gang would be hiding."

"While Harold Is looking up the gang we should be out there looking. I can't just sit and wait" I told Reese.

"Me neither, let's go."

As soon as we got in the car to drive off, Harold beeped into our earpieces. "It looks like the one part of the gang hangs out in a warehouse right outside the Bronx. The police have raided it a few times, but it seems that they continue to reside there. I'll send you the address. "

"Thanks Finch."

With Reese's speedy driving it only took about fifteen minutes to arrive at the warehouse. When we got there both of us grabbed our guns and the extra magazines and headed out. After scoping the outside of the warehouse, we determined that there was only one viable entrance. Reese and I were both going to bust through the door and just wing it when we got in there. Cause you know, no plan is a great plan, I suppose. Right before we opened the door Harold came through with more information.

"Looks like the gang kidnapped Ms. Miller in order to collect a ransom. It appears that her parents have a lot of money that no one really knows about. I'm pretty sure it came from real estate back in the day. Once they got the money, they would have been able to pay off a few cops on HR's payroll in order to break Tony Perez out of prison. The gang has been helping HR smuggle drugs"

"They were probably planning on killing Cassie after they got the money; no loose ends." John reasoned.

"Okay we better get going." Reese signaled to three and I opened the door, while he went through the opening. I followed right behind John as back up. He continued to look around looking for guys; when didn't see any, we decided to split up.

Walking around quietly with my gun held in front of me, I noticed a small movement up ahead. I was getting closer to the person that moved when I heard shots from where John was. The figure heard them too and moved towards where I was standing. Before they were able to pull the trigger I shot the guy in both shoulders.

I went to go turn around when I got grabbed around the neck and disarmed. I stomped on the inside attacker's foot and elbowed him in the chest, when he released me I turned around kicked him in the groin and then punched him square in the eye, knocking him unconscious. I walked over, grabbed my gun and headed to where Reese should be. When I got close to him, he turned around to see who was behind him. Reese lowered his gun and walked towards me when I saw a guy come out of nowhere behind John; he was about to shoot when I raised my gun and shot the guy in the knee. Reese turned around quickly to see who I shot, "You shot him in the knee?"

"Yeah. What's the big deal John?"

"Since when do you shoot guys in the knee?"

"Uh since always. Why do you think I was removed from the field Reese? The FBI doesn't appreciate it when you shoot, but not to kill."

He shook his head and smirked before saying "A woman after my own heart."

I was about to say something back to John, but before I could Miller ran from around a corner with her mouth taped shut and her hands tied behind her back.

I walked over to Cassie and untied the ropes that were around her hands and ripped the duct tape off of her mouth. "Cassie, were there any other men?"

"I.. I don't think so. Who are you guys?"

"We're here to help you. Lauren go call Lionel and tell him there's a crime scene here."

I walked off to go call Lionel, he answered the phone on the second ring. "Fusco." "Hi detective, it's Reese's friend." "The woman from the park?" "Yes detective. There's a crime scene down outside the Bronx. The missing lawyer is here too." "Okay i'll be there."

"Fusco's on his way."

"Okay. Look Cassie you're going to have to stay here and wait for the detectives. We have to go."

Miller looked freaked out about the fact that she was going to have to wait here alone. 'Why!?"

"Look, Cassie, my friend John and I can't be seen by the police since we shot all of these men in order to save you. We need you to say you don't remember what we look like. Say something like it was a traumatic experience, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you." With that Reese and I walked out of the Warehouse and drove off towards the library. It was great to know that we stopped this from happening. I mean, when I worked for the bureau, I won't have been assigned the case until Ms. Miller was already dead most likely.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:BREAKING LAWS...**

I can't believe that I have only been working with John and Harold for a week. So much has happened over this past week it's ridiculous. I mean we have already saved about eight people, Harold found me a new apartment, Reese and I raided a gang's gun storage yesterday, and here I was, being called into work extra early this morning. It must be pretty important if Harold wanted us in early; he always wants us to get enough of down time.

I was still sleeping when he called this morning so I was currently rushing around to get dressed. Harold decided that I should be 'better dressed'; like wearing women's suit jackets, but my shoulders were too wide to fit in them. I was running late anyway so I decided to forgo the jacket for today, besides, I felt like those jackets just made me look like an agent anyway. Dressing in jeans, a t-shirt, and boots with a heel, I french braided my hair and grabbed my favorite pair of sunglasses and headed to the library.

It wasn't until I got to the library, that I realized that I didn't have coffee yet. Today was starting on a great page. Walking up the entrance, I was surprised to be greeted by Reese, holding a coffee for himself and me. I was so happy; I was not a happy person without coffee in the morning. After grabbing my coffee and giving Reese a nod of thanks, we walked up the stairs to meet Finch.

"Ah good morning Ms. Westen, Mr. Reese. I have some slightly troubling news. It seems that Detective Carter has found video footage of the raid you two made the other day; tieing her 'Man in the Suit' to a mystery woman, who also likes shooting suspects in the knee. Fortunately, Ms. Westen didn't leave any fingerprints at the warehouse, so Carter has yet to figure out who you are."

"Oh crap, at least I didn't leave any prints. So, who's the new number Finch?" I asked, pretty unphased by the fact that Carter is now looking for me; it wasn't like I was going to stop working anyway.

"Ms. Westen, this is serious. You don't appear to be too concerned."

"Lauren, as soon as Carter finds something, your name will come up; you're in the system" John said with a slightly worried tone.

"Awe is Johnny boy worried about sharing the spotlight?" I joked, but Finch and Reese just stared at me. "Look, guys, I know it's serious, but it's not going to stop me from working, so we may as well just move on."

"Very well, Ms. Westen. Our new number is Mrs. Ashley Clark. She is a nurse at New York Mercy, recently widowed, she goes to church every Sunday, owns a bichon frise named Cannoli. She has been logging almost as many hours as we have lately and eats mostly take out. It appears that she has been slacking on her credit card payments lately,but she has paid her taxes the last ten years."

"Recently widowed? How did her husband die?" Reese asked.

"It appears to be suicide, he had just lost his job with a medical technology firm after fifteen years, though the actual cause of death is listed as accidental overdose."

"Any ideas as to whether sees the victim or perpetrator Harold." I asked while putting the earpiece into my ear.

"I have no idea Ms. Westen. You and John will have to figure that out. Right now Mrs. Clark is on call at the hospital."

Reese looked at me and asked if I wanted to split up for this one, in order to cover more ground.

"Yeah. I'll take the house, you keep an eye out on Ashley." I said to John as I walked to his armory and grabbed a gun. When I turned around Reese had an amused look on his face. "What?"

He smirked, "You know how to break into someone's house?"

"Of course I do. Just because I was FBI doesn't mean I'm innocent. You of all people should understand that John." I smirked, grabbed a set of keys and walked out the door.

Ashley's house was relatively easy to find. She lived in a nice apartment building in Queens that seemed to be located in a good neighborhood; which meant it was going to be a little harder to break into her apartment, but i'm always up for a challenge. The doorman let me right into the building and surprisingly the man at the main desk didn't ask me any questions either. I guess they weren't too concerned with burglars in this neighborhood.

I took the elevator to the seventh floor and then walked down two hallways just to get to Clark's room. Checking to make sure no one was in the hall, I quickly took out my lock picking kit and started on the lock. It only took me about a minute and a half to get the door open; I guess I was a little rusty. As soon as I went through the door Cannoli was at my feet trying to get me to pet her. What a great watch dog. I started to look around her apartment when my phone went off, I clicked the earpiece and said, "What's up Finch?"

To my surprise, Mike's voice came through the phone. "Hey Ren, you're going to have to settle for your brother."

"Mike?"

"Yeah it's me. How are you doing? I thought you might have called me by now, but I guess you're busy saving lives."

"Yeah… sorry about that. Uh, i'm kind of busy right now, can I call you later?"

"Saving a life or doing something illegal?"

"A little bit of both I suppose. How did you know I was doing something illegal?"

"Lauren. You're whispering."

I laughed, "Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that."

"So what is it this time Lauren?"

"Breaking into someone's house to get more information. How's Sam and Fi by the way, i'm sure Sam was upset about my sudden departure." I continued to look through all of Ashley's drawers until I found her computer. I pulled out the special flash drive out of my pocket, put it into the computer, and waited for it to download everything to the flash drive, while listening to Mike talk. While I waited, I carefully installed miniature cameras in a few of her lighting fixtures in the kitchen, living room and towards the front door.

"That sounds like something I would do. And yeah Sam was pretty sad, but he got over it."

I was pretty happy to be talking to Mike; I kinda missed him. I was about to ask him how much he liked having his loft back to himself, but the computer beeped when the flash drive went to pull up Ashley's emails. "Mike I have to go. It was great talking to you though, i'll make sure I call when i'm done with case, okay?"

"Okay, bye sis."

Looking through her emails, I noticed that she had been in touch with a lawyer friend a few weeks after her husband died. What was surprising, was that they were talking about his death. It looked like she believed her husband was murdered by someone; interesting. I clicked the earpiece and asked, "Finch, you there?"

"Always, Ms. Westen."

"Can you patch in Reese for me?"

"What's up Finch?"

"So, I was just looking through Ashley's emails and it seems that she was talking to a lawyer about how she thought her husband was murdered. What drug did her husband supposedly overdose on?"

"Hm. It looks like the autopsy says Xanax. I'll look through their medical records to see if either one of them had a prescription for it." With that Harold hung up the phone.

"Reese you still there?"

"Yeah, what's up Lauren?"

"You still at the hospital?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm done here, so I'm going to meet you at the hospital. Want anything?"

"Yeah, some real coffee."

….

An hour later I was walking through the hospital trying to find Reese. Every time i tried to call him people would just stare at me or tell me I can't use a cell phone here; it was rather annoying. I decided to just walk into a bathroom to make my call, however, before I could find a bathroom, I found Reese sitting in a chair down the hall. As I approached him, he was talking on the phone with someone,who i'm assuming was Harold. I sat down in the chair next to him, handed him his coffee, and waited for him to get off the phone.

"That was Finch. He says that the Clark's had a prescription for xanax, but it hasn't been refiled in almost six months, so it's a possibility that the husband was murdered."

"Interesting. What's Ashley been doing all day?"

"Tending to patients, acting like a normal nurse for the most part. I'm thinking she's the victim."

"Why do you say that Reese?"

"She's acting normal. If she was going to kill someone she would be on edge, looking anxious, and more than likely doing some planning. She's not doing any of that."

"Yeah I guess. What time does she get off tonight?"

"The nurse at the nurse's station told me she's on call until seven." he said looking at his watch. "So in about ten minutes."

"There she goes, she must be leaving a little early tonight. Did you bring stuff for surveillance?"

"I was hoping you did, Lauren. I took my motorcycle here."

"You ride? And yeah I have the camera in the car."

"Don't look so surprised. There's a lot you don't know about me Westen."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: AND KEEPING ORDER**

Reese and I followed Clark all the way back to her apartment in my car and now we were currently sitting in the car watching her through one of her windows. She lived on a low enough level where we could still see in her windows. Yes that sounds pretty creepy, but it was the only way to watch her until the cameras I installed started to work. Apparently, I installed them wrong, but i'm pretty sure Harold bluetoothed the wrong cameras. Only time will tell I suppose. We have been sitting in silence the whole time we've been watching and it's oddly comfortable. I usually feel uncomfortable with this type of silence with someone that I don't really know, but for some reason with Reese it didn't bother me. I was enjoying the silence when a thought came to me; why would anyone want to kill Ashley's husband if he was indeed murdered.

"Reese, did we ever figure out why anyone would have a motive to kill Andrew Clark?"

"No. That's a good question." Reese clicked on his phone and dialed Finch. As soon as he answered, Reese put him on speaker.

"Finch, did anyone have a motive to kill the Clark husband?"

"Let's see, he was employed at a medical technology firm in the research and testing departments. That's odd. It looks like he was fired for budget cuts, but the firm had recently come into money from a donor. Maybe you two should pay the CEO, Mark Warner a visit tomorrow."

"Sounds good Harold. Did you get the cameras running yet?"

"Yes. It took a while, but I finally figured it out."

I just had to know what the problem was, "What was the issue?"

"I accidentally bluetoothed the wrong set of cameras to my computer." With that, Harold hung up; I laughed.

Reese just stared at me, "What's so funny, Ren?"

"I told him that was the problem before, but he wouldn't believe me." I went to open a bag of chips when I realized Reese just called me Ren. "Did you just call me Ren?"

"Yeah, why? You don't like it?"

"No I do. It's just that my brothers are the only ones that have ever called me that, it just took me by surprise when you did."

"Oh really? And I thought you only had one brother?"

"I wish. I have a twin brother and a younger brother."

"I'm guessing you always talk about your twin?"

"Yeah, my younger brother likes to get into trouble and my twin and I are the ones that always have to help him get out of it."

"Huh."

…..

Something startled me awake and my first reaction was to throw a punch. I was so confused as to where I was or what was going on. When I threw my punch a hand grabbed my fist. I opened my eyes and realized it was Reese who blocked my punch.

"Sorry. You'll learn not to wake me up like that though"

"You're offly feisty waking up. I thought only war vets woke up throwing punches. If I wasn't ready you probably would have broke my nose." Reese joked.

"Laugh it up Reese, laugh it up. You wouldn't be laughing if I broke your nose, now would you?"

"Yeah I guess I wouldn't. You ready to go visit this CEO guy?"

"Yeah, but only if we get some coffee first."

….

Mark Warner's office was at the top floor of a building in the middle of the city. Reese and I walked up to the elevator and rode it all the way to the top. When we exited the elevator we came face to face with a receptionist. I walked up to the desk while Reese looked around the lobby.

"Hi we're here to see Mark Warner."

"He's not here right now."

"I just called twenty minutes ago and he said that he was going to be in his office all day."

"Do you have an appointment?" The receptionist kept giving me an attitude when she talked. I was getting pretty irritated; we knew that Mark was in his office based on Finch hacking the cameras in the building. All of a sudden the receptionist started to smile, I was confused until I saw Reese walk up.

"Hi, sorry we don't have an appointment, but we really need to see Mr. Warner. My uncle wants to donate to this cause, but he wanted us to check it out first."

"Sure, let me just call him, it should only be about five minutes. You can have a seat."

As we walked to sit down I just shook my head. Once we sat down I said to Reese, "I never understood that."

"What?"

"How women just turn to mush, because a good looking guy she doesn't even know talked to her." Reese just stared at me looking slightly confused. "You do know you do that to women right?" He smirked at me. "Of course you know. Don't play with me Reese."

"Mr. Warner will see you now."

We got up and walked to the room where the receptionist was pointing. When we entered, Mark was standing behind his desk, and once he saw us, he greeted us with a hello and a handshake. "What can I do for you two?"

"My uncle was interested in donating to your company, but he wanted us to get some information first. You've gotten some bad press lately about a former employee committing suicide. We were hoping that you could explain a little about his situation to us."

"I'm not sure I can do that."

I looked at John, it was my time to put on the charm. "Sir I understand that, but it was my understanding that Andrew Clark's suicide was common knowledge. My uncle wants to donate some of his savings to your company, but he wants to make sure no one else will cause bad press." I batted my eyelashes a little, hoping that Mark would take the bait. Turns out, I still had it.

"Okay, I guess you do have the right to know. He started having a problem with everything we were inventing. Even after all the tests came back positive, he would have some sort of problem. We were a little short on money so I fired him. A week later I found out he had killed himself. I couldn't believe it; there was no way Andrew would just kill himself."

Warner continued to talk when Finch's voice came through our earpieces, "I've been checking out Mark Warner and the company. It seems like the products Andrew had issues with were recently recalled, don't have a high level of positive results,they never came to market or on others there have been blog posts about how the products have made the clients worse. I think Andrew found out that some of the inventions would not be helping people and wanted to blow the whistle. And you'll never believe who has a prescription for xanax."

I think it was time to get out of here and try to figure things out. "Thank you Mr. Warner I think we have enough information. I hope we will be seeing you again."

"Me too. Have a nice day you two." With that we walked out of his office and down the elevator.

Once we reached the car Reese turned towards me and said,"Warner might be after Ashley now that she found out her husband was murdered."

"Or she's planning to kill Warner if she figured out it was him." I said while startling the car. "So we have two different theories, what do you want to do about it?"

"You want to split up? Ill tail Warner and you tail Ashley? That way we have eyes on both of them."

"Sounds like a plan to me. I'll drive back to the hospital and then you can take the car back, so you can do surveillance from out here." With that I drove off towards Mercy Hospital.

We arrived at Mercy about twenty minutes later because of traffic. I got out and Reese switched seats with me and waved goodbye. I took the elevator up to where Clark works and to my surprise there was a police officer talking to one of the nurses at the main desk. I waited until the cop left, and went up to the desk to ask what was going on.

"Hi, Lauren Westen, FBI." I flashed my old badge. "Can you tell me what's going on here?"

"Oh, yeah, sure ma'am. The detective was just here to document the drugs that were missing."

"Could you tell me what drugs?"

"Well last month it was vicodin, last week it was aspirin, and this week it was potassium chloride and some more vicodin. Stupid drug addicts keep stealing our drugs."

"Okay. Thank you for the information." That was not good. I'm pretty sure potassium chloride was used to induce heart attacks with criminals. I guess I was right about Ashley. I clicked my earpiece and waited for Finch to answer. "Finch?"

"Yes, Ms. Westen?"

"Can you look up a police report for me about missing drugs from the hospital and cross check that list with days that Clark was working?"

"Okay hold on." I heard Harold feverously clicking keys in the background. It took him about five minutes to answer me. "It appears that Ms. Clark was only working during the vicodin last month and the drugs this week. What are you thinking?"

"Okay. I'm pretty sure that Ashley stole the potassium chloride and is planning on killing Mark Warner for killing her husband. Call Reese and have him watch Warner, see if you can find anything that ties Warner to Andrew's death, i'm going to talk Ashley out of murder."

I went back to the nurses station and ask the nurse where I could find Clark. Apparently, she was in the break room, so I headed down there to find her. Luckily for me, she was all alone, therefore I would be able to just walk in and talk to her. I opened the door and went to sit down across from Clark. "Hello Ashley. I shouldn't have to explain to you that you're not a killer, but here I am, having to convince you not to murder Mark Warner."

"H… How do you know that?" She looked so frightened. Another thing that told me, there was no way she could have lived with her self after committing murder.

"Look, i'm here to help you. I know what it's like to take a life, it's not something that's easy to live with, even if they deserve it. I know this because I used to be FBI. I've killed criminals before, and it doesn't change that fact that you're taking a life; you save lives here. Isn't that why you became a nurse? To save lives and help people?"

"Yeah. But he murdered my husband!" As she was saying that Finch beeped in my ear, "I rewatched the video footage from after you guys left Mr. Warner's office. He made a call to someone and once I pulled up the voice in the video, you hear him say that you guys were nosing around about Andrews fake suicide and that they should have covered it up better. I have already anonymously sent the tape to Carter." After Harold relayed his information, I clicked off the earpiece.

"Look, Ashley, my associates and I have evidence that links Warner to the murder of your husband and we have sent it to the police. He will be arrested and charged. Just get rid of the drugs and live your life. You don't have to kill him."

Clark had a look of relief on her face when she got up and hugged me. "Thank you so much. Andrew deserved to be remembered the way he was, not by the belief that he killed himself."

"You're welcome. It's my job. Now go back to yours and save some more lives," I slightly joked. We didn't really save any lives this time, but at least we stopped a good women from becoming a murderer. I really liked this job way more than my job at the Bureau; I felt like I was helping a lot more lives this way. Now it was time to head home and get some actual sleep, not just some car sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: CIA: CAUGHT IN ACTION**

I can't believe how diabolical Elias and HR was. I mean I know they're like the mob and the mob does crazy bad things, but still, I can't believe they tried to kill a cop; a good cop at that.

Less than five minutes ago, Reese shot Carter's CI and saved her life. If we hadn't been there, she would have been a dead women. And all because one guy thought she was getting too close to arresting him. The world was a really messed up place; you would have thought I would have figured that out by now, working in law enforcement and all, but no. So currently, I was driving Reese and myself back to H.Q. to wrap things up for the night. I really needed a good night's sleep after today, but I almost had a bad feeling about going back to the library. It was already around two in the morning when we left the alley where Carter was, meaning that I would only get a few hours of sleep anyway, but I seriously couldn't deal with helping another number right now.

When we arrived at the library, Harold was still sitting at his computer typing away. That wasn't a good sign. "Mr. Reese, Ms. Westen, good work tonight. Unfortunately, we have a new number, actually four numbers. I know what you guys are thinking, and no we are not working on these people tonight. Go home and get a few hours of sleep and we'll start in the morning."

I was so grateful; I was completely exhausted and I could probably fall asleep right here standing. "Thanks Harold. I owe you one. There was no way I would be able to help anyone else tonight." Reese and I went to go leave when I decided to hand him the keys to the car; being as tired as I was, I probably shouldn't be driving. John didn't even say anything about me handing him the keys. I got into the passenger's seat and closed my eyes.

I woke up to Reese calling my name, I guess I feel asleep on the drive home. I went to get out of the car and to my surprise, Reese drove straight to his house, he didn't even bother to drive me home; I guess he was pretty tired too. I walked right behind him into his apartment and went to go lay on the couch, but Reese was already sitting on it. "Look, i'm too tired to argue with you,but next time you get the bed. We had a deal." And with that I got into the bed and passed out.

I woke up from the sun coming through the windows and was surprised to see that Reese was still sleeping on the couch. Never in a million years did I expect to wake up before John. After debating for a minute I decided to let him sleep for a little longer. I got up and walked into his bathroom to take a shower; now only if I had clean clothes. I guess I was going to have to settle for changing at the library.

When I got out of the shower I dried myself off with one of Reese's giant towels. I mean i'm not a short girl at 5'7'', but his towels are big. I really need to get me some of these. Right before I put clothes back on, I heard my phone go off in the other room. Praying John was still sleeping I wrapped myself in the towel and walked back out into the main living area to get my phone. Picking up my phone I saw that it was only a text from Mike, saying he might have found a way to get back into the agency. It wasn't that important, he said that every other week, so I put my phone back down and turned around to go back into the bathroom, when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I almost yelled until I realized it was just Reese, who was already dressed in a new suit. I said good morning and went to go back into the bathroom to put some clothes on. On my way back I caught Reese staring at me when I looked at the television on the wall; I guess he didn't realize I used counter surveillance. I smiled. Who would have thought a spy of all people would get caught staring?

…..

Today was a difficult day to say the least. Two of the numbers had already ended up dead and the next two were on the run. Reese and I found the last two girls at a house somewhat out in the woods; together. We never knew that Paula and Wendy knew each other. When we confronted them inside the house a group of guys came there and started to shoot up the place. In all of the confusion of gunfire and beating up assailants, we lost Wendy and Paula. They decided it would be a good idea to just take off.

So here we were; currently split up on opposite sides of town trying to find these two girls. I would have never thought that they could hide from us like this, but I guess anything was possible. I was driving towards Paula's house to try and find them or anything that would indicate where they would go while Reese was looking through Wendy's things at the house. Hopefully, we will find them before these other guys do; I don't think we can deal with the rest of today's numbers dying on us.

After driving for a good half hour, I finally arrived at Paula's place. It was a nice little town house across from a park. Unfortunately, there were no lights on in the house, which meant they weren't here. I figured that I should at least go inside and try to find anything to point to where they might be going. I pulled out my locking picking tools and started at the lock; it only took like thirty seconds for it to open. I shut the door behind me and began to look around. Paula had some nice furniture in here, it surprised me. I got to the kitchen area and found some bills and other mail lying around. I looked through them to see if there was anything useful in them, but there was nothing. This was going to take forever to locate these two. As I was walking into the bedroom Finch spoke in my ear.

"Ms. Westen. John has located Paula and Wendy at the hospital where their mother is being kept. I'll send you the address."

"Thanks Finch." With that I walked back out of the house and down the street to where my car was parked. Hopefully Reese could deal with these two, because it was going to take me awhile to get down there.

Twenty minutes have passed and I only made it halfway to the hospital. The traffic was absolutely terrible at this hour. I was getting so frustrated; how can this many people drive this stupid? I was getting ready to call Finch for an alternate route when I heard his voice.

"Ms. Westen we have a problem."

"What is it Harold?"

"Mr. Reese called Carter to inform her about the assailants and how they were going to be at the hospital, but Carter decided to call Snow from the CIA as well and told him where John is going to be."

"Awe shit. What a stupid thing to do. Have you told Reese yet?"

"I can't get a hold of him. He must have turned his phone off."

"Fuck! Finch can you find me another route to the hospital? I'm stuck in traffic."

"Yes. I just sent it to your phone. I'll keep you patched in to my line in case he calls me. Please hurry."

"Will do Harold." This was not good at all. I quickly turned off the road I was on and took all the back streets by following Finch's directions. It only took me about ten minutes to make it there. I parked my car in the front and went to get out when I heard gunshots. I got back in my car and headed around the hospital to the parking garage. As I turned a corner I heard Reese call Harold. "Finch."

"John, I've been trying to call you."

Reese's voice came out staggered and all I heard was heavy breathing in the background, "I messed up. It's not looking good. I wanted to say thank you. For giving me a job. For giving me a second chance. For saving my life."

"John it's not over. Lauren is at the hospital. What floor are you on?"

"No. Tell her to stay away. If Carter sees her…" While John was talking I kept driving around inside the parking structure. I needed to find him before Snow or Carter did. I was about to go up another level when the doors to the stairs opened and Reese was there holding his side. He looked awful. I parked the car and got out to go help John. When I reached him, he put his arm around my shoulder to help himself walk. We were just about to the car when Carter came out of nowhere and yelled, "Stop!"

I turned around to look at her when a look of realization crossed her face. She said, "You?" Then, Carter looked around and started walking towards us when she said the most surprising thing, "Get him out of here." She grabbed John's other side and helped me get him into the car. While I was walking back around to the drivers side I yelled, "Thank you Detective!" I got into the car and took off out of the parking garage.

As soon as I was out of the garage I spoke to Finch, "Harold, I got John. He really needs medical attention, but we can't take him to a hospital. Where are we going to take him? He's in real bad shape." Desperation seeped into my voice.

"I have a plan. Take him to the address I just sent you. I'll meet you there."

I looked at the address and continued driving. I looked in my rearview mirror to see Reese leaning against the window with his eyes closed. "John. Open your eyes. You can't die on me! You haven't taught me how to ride a motorcycle yet!" At the sound of my voice he opened his eyes. I sighed in relief.

To my surprise Reese began to talk, "Why. Did you. Come to. Get me?"

That was probably the saddest thing I had ever heard. "John, I wasn't going to let you die, just to save my freedom. Besides, you would have done the same thing for me." John smiled slightly.

"You're. Right."

Five minutes later, I was at the address Finch gave me; it was a morgue. I parked the car in the back of the building next to Harold's car. When I got out, I said to him, "Finch. What's the plan here? John's not dead yet."

"I know, Ms. Westen. There is a doctor that works here that will agree to help John as soon as I explain some things to him. Just get Reese out of the car and into this wheel chair." Harold walked back to his trunk, grabbed a bag and headed into the morgue.

I walked to the back seat, open the door slowly, and shook John a little. "Hey. You have to get into this wheel chair now so we can get you help. And to answer your question, no we're not at a hospital." John shifted slowly in the car to try to get out, all the while wincing and grunting in pain. With some help, John ended up sitting in the wheelchair. I was heartbroken; never in my life did I expect to see this strong man look so weak.

Harold and the doctor came out and the doctor gave me a small smile while he grabbed the chair to wheel Reese into the building. I stood there staring as he wheeled John away. I couldn't move; I was still in shock I guess. I can't believe that John is this close to death. After all of the bad things I can tell he's been through, he doesn't deserve this. I can't believe that Carter turned him in, all to end up helping us get away from the CIA. I guess Snow wasn't who she thought he was either.

I must have been standing outside for a good ten minutes before Finch came back out to talk to me. "Ms. Westen, are you alright?"

I didn't even know how to answer him. My friend was shot and I wasn't there, all because we decided to split up. This probably wouldn't have happened if I just stuck with Reese today instead of insisting we split up. I sighed, "I don't know


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: VIGILANTE MINDS:**

It took the doctor about three hours to patch John up. The whole time Harold and I were sitting in what looked like the doctor's office off to the side of the morgue. I pretty much sat there worrying the whole time while Finch was on his laptop and making calls for almost two hours. Apparently, he was looking up places that we could hide John in while he recovers; which was pretty smart. Finch told me that he found a room at one of the nicer hotels in the city and it had wheelchair access.

The doctor came out of the morgue and informed us that Reese was stable and that he was going to be in pain for a while. He then handed me a bag of supplies that included medication and some extra gauze for his wounds. He walked back inside and grabbed Reese to wheel him out to our car. Finch instructed me to put the supplies in my car and that I would drive John to the hotel, following Finch there.

The doctor got John in my car, all while Reese was passed out from the pain meds. It was only about a fifteen drive to the hotel,but it took almost a half hour to get John into the place that Harold booked. It was a really nice suite with two bedrooms and a main living area. Somehow, I managed to get Reese in one of the beds while he was still passed out; I honestly have no idea how I managed to do that,but I was glad I did. Once he was settled I walked back into the main area to talk to Harold, who looked totally worn out.

"Finch, Why don't you take the other bedroom and get some sleep, you look exhausted. I'll keep an eye on Reese for now."

"Okay. Maybe you're right Ms. Westen. Thank You."

"You're welcome Harold. Get some rest." With that he walked into the other bedroom and shut the door.

I walked into Reese's room and just stared at his body just laying there; it was quite unnerving seeing John look so relaxed. I mean he pretty much always looked relaxed,but this was a different kind of relaxed, it was hard to explain. After standing there for a few minutes, I decided to go back into the living area, when I heard Reese mumble something. I walked over to the side of his bed and asked, "John?"

To my surprise he answered, "Jessica?"

Who's Jessica? I wondered, but instead I just said back to him, "No, it's me Lauren."

"Ren?"

"Yeah it's me. You're in a hotel room right now by the way." I walked over to his supplies and grabbed one of the pain meds and handed it to John.

"Okay. Thanks." He took the pill and put his head back down. He looked really out of it.

"No problem Reese" I went to go walk away when to my shock, John grabbed my hand and said the most surprising thing ever, "Wait." I could kind of see a sadness in his eyes and I realized that he wanted me to stay, but couldn't get himself to say it. "Yeah. I'll stay."

I walked away from the bed to grab a chair that was in the corner and dragged it back to the bed. By the time I sat down Reese was already passed out again. I felt so bad for him. He's probably miserable and in so much pain. The CIA was seriously on my bad side; between the things that happened to Mike and now Reese, I literally have nothing good to say. Every time I thought about it, It just made me angrier; I have to do something.

Around two hours later, I still couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the plan I sorta came up with. I was going to hunt down Snow. Yeah it's probably a bad idea, but it has to be done. I was thinking about how I was going to lure Snow out when Reese started mumbling in his sleep. His arms were moving slightly in his sleep and that worried me. When I put my hand on John's to try and get him to calm down, he grabbed my hand. That was something I never expected. As soon as Reese grabbed my hand he stopped mumbling and moving; he went right back into a peaceful sleep. Weird. So now I was stuck with my left hand laying face up on the bed while John's right hand held mine. I looked at the clock in the room and saw that it was already 3:30am, I really needed to sleep. Therefore, I tried my best to get into a comfortable position, and somehow, I fell asleep within ten minutes.

 _Reese POV:_

 _Pain. Pain everywhere. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a bed in some dark room. Where the hell am I? I was trying to figure out where I was and what was going on when I noticed something was in my hand. I tried to lift my head, but it hurt too much, so I turned my head and realized I was holding someone's hand. What the fuck? I tried to adjust to the darkness of the room, when I finally realized I was holding Lauren's hand;but why? Then it hit me; Mark Snow. He shot me, but I was still alive, Lauren came and got me. I smiled slightly. I was about to remove my hand, but I decided against it. I don't want to take the chance of waking Ren, so I left my hand holding hers and feel back asleep._

The first thing I notice when I wake up is the fact that my left arm is numb. I was so confused until I remembered that I feel asleep holding Reese's hand. Reese. I looked over to the bed and saw Reese looking back at me. I smiled slightly, "Hey. How are you feeling?"

John slowly answered, "Like I got shot."

I cracked a small laugh, "Well that would be because you were shot, genius." John smiled. I got up and walked to the bag of supplies the doctor gave me, opened the bottle of pain meds, grabbed one, and walked back to John. I handed him the pill, but he just looked at me. I knew he wasn't going to want the meds. "John, you have to take them, and don't you dare argue with me. I'm already giving you half of the dose that the doctor wanted you to take." He continued to stare at me with a stern look, that I just returned. Eventually, he took the pill from my hand and swallowed it.

After that Finch walked into the room, "Ah Good morning Ms. Westen, Mr Reese, how are you?"

"I'm okay Finch." John said.

"Okay. I have to run a few errands today so I'll be gone for a few hours. Do you need anything?"

I thought for a second before I answered, "Actually, could you wait a little bit so I can run home and shower and change first, Finch?"

"Of course Ms. Westen." I smiled and walked out of the bedroom. I grabbed the set of keys and my phone and walked outside. This was my chance to put my plan into motion.

When I got to my apartment I quickly jumped into the shower. Once I was out of the shower I called Fusco.

"Fusco"

"Hey Detective. I need a favor."

"Don't you always? What is it?" Fusco said sounding pretty annoyed.

"I need you to see if you can find Mark Snow's cell number and send it to me?"

"The CIA guy that's after wonder boy? Why do you need his number?"

"Fusco, just get me his number okay?" Now I was getting annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, fine." He hung up. Now all I needed to do was buy a burner phone on my way back to the hotel. I drove about five miles out of the way just to stop at a bodega that wasn't close to anything that would tie me to the phone. On my way there Fusco texted me Snow's number. I bought that cheapest phone they had and made my way back to the hotel. When I got onto the block where the hotel was, I decided against going back right away. I needed to make sure my text wouldnt be traced back to Reese. I drove five minutes away and parked outside a different hotel to make the text. It read: I _know you're looking for John Reese. I know where he is. Meet me the top of the parking garage on the corner of 42nd and 5th sts. 4pm. Come alone or I won't show._ After I sent the text, I drove back to the hotel.

I got back to the hotel and noticed that I was only gone for an hour. That was good. They wouldn't suspect anything. Now all I needed to do was borrow one of Harold's laptops and hack the parking garages camera feeds to make sure Mark comes alone. As soon as I got back into the room, Finch was on his way going wherever it was that he goes. Now I just had to wait a while before I could go. In the meantime, I made John and myself some lunch. Once he was done eating, John fell back asleep. Poor guy, he probably hasn't slept this much in the past like ten years with the CIA. It was about five after three which meant I should head out to the meeting place to scope it out first. I'm assuming Mark won't come until like 3:30 to check it out or he did already. I left a note for Reese saying that I went to help Harold with something. Next, I grabbed my gun, phone, the burner, and one of the laptops Finch left here. It was go time.

When I got to the parking garage, I parked the car in a nice hidden place between two cars that were there. The garage was used as overflow parking for the businesses across the street. It still had working security cameras, but there was no security to actually look at the footage. It was the perfect place to meet. After I parked, I started up the laptop and started to hack into the buildings cameras to watch Mark arrive. Sure enough at 3:40 Mark arrived alone, surprisingly, and started to walk around trying to find a good place to look out. I watched him on the security cameras until 4:10, I wanted to make him wait, then I got out putting my real phone in my pocket and my gun in the back of my waistband, and walked towards him. As soon as Snow saw me I could see him squint trying to figure out who I was.

When I got closer I spoke first, "Hello Mark."

"Who are you and where's Reese?"

"You get down to business real fast don't you? I'm a friend of John's and sadly he's not coming." Every time I spoke, I kept a stern look on my face.

Mark chuckled, "Of course he's not coming. You know, John's only using you like he did with his old partner. As soon as he get's tired of you, he'll get rid of you like he did Stanton."

It was my turn to laugh, "Oh Mark, you tell that story to every women Reese comes in contact with don't you? That's how you got Carter on your side right? I mean everyone can't be that stupid."

I saw Mark get slightly angrier. "You would have made a great agent you know."

"Why would I do that? You'd just try to kill me in the end."

"Wow you really are smart. Now why are you here?" Mark asked looking even angrier than before.

"I'm glad you asked. I'm here to tell you to stay away from Reese and myself or you'll be sorry. Get out of the city and do whatever it is agents do when they retire." I said that with as much anger and fervor I could muster.

"You can't scare me you know. But you made a good effort though." Mark stopped talking, but before I went to leave he said something else, "You know, I bet he only keeps you around because you remind him of Jessica. Or has he never told you about what he did to her?" There was that name again, Jessica. Hmm. I'm gonna ask Reese about it later.

Meanwhile:

 _I woke up and turned to see if Lauren was still here, I really needed water. She wasn't there, but she left a note. I opened and read it, huh, they started a case without me? That's when I heard Finch walk in the door. He came into the room after a minute or two looking a little worried. He asked me, "Where's Ms. Westen?" Huh?_

 _"She left a note saying she had to help you with something."_

 _Finch looked confused and even more worried, "No I thought she was going to stay here with you. Hold on." He walked away and came back with a laptop in his hand and then sat in the chair that Lauren slept in last night. Finch kept clicking away at his computer until he looked at me and said, "Oh no. We have a problem."_

 _"What is it Finch?"_

 _"I traced Ms. Westen's phone to a parking garage and then I hacked into the cameras only to find that someone already hacked them. When I got images, Ms. Westen was on the top floor talking with Snow."_

 _I was so confused and angry at the same time. Why would she go talk to him?! "What let me see?" Finch showed me the video, unfortunately there was no sound, but I could tell that Mark was pissed. That was never a good thing. I started trying to get out of bed when Finch stopped me. He said, "What are you doing?"_

 _"I'm going to go get Lauren! Mark is going to kill her, I'm not going to let that happen."_

 _"Mr. Reese you can't get out of bed, How were you planning on taking Mark down in this shape? Westen can handle herself." I knew he was right, but it didn't mean I had to like it._

I turned to walk away from Mark, but I caught his reflection in a parked car. He pulled a gun out from his back and pointed at me. Boy was he an idiot. I stayed turned around, but I said, "At least have the balls to look me in the eye when you shoot me Mark." I quickly turned around, pulling my gun out and I shot Mark right in the shoulder of the arm he was holding the gun in, then I grazed his stomach and then grazed his head. Mark went down after the head shot. I walked up to him, stepped on his shoulder wound and said, "Come near John or me again and I won't just graze you next time." With that I grabbed his gun and walked off towards my car. Time to head back to the hotel.

 _At the Hotel:_

 _We watched as Ren turned around and Mark raised his gun to the back of her head. This was not good. I don't think I could handle watching Mark ruin another life. Why would she go talk to Mark? I was internally freaking out,but not letting my body language show it when out of nowhere Ren turned around, pulled her gun and shot Snow three times. We both let out a breath after he went down. To my surprise, she walked right up to him stepped on his shoulder wound and said something to him, then she grabbed his gun and walked off. Now we just had to wait for Lauren to get back._


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: LIAR'S REMORSE**

I drove back to the hotel and refused to go in right away. I had this sinking feeling that Harold knew what I did. Knowing him, if he suspected anything, he would have just traced my phone and saw where I was. I probably waited a good twenty minutes before I walked into the hotel and rode the elevator up to the floor we were staying on.

I unlocked the door to the room and before I could even lock the door behind me, I heard Harold limp into the main living area. That was it, he knew. I sighed and turned towards Harold. "I'm guessing you already know what I did?"

Finch kept a straight face when he said, "We both do."

I sighed, I was probably going to get a good lashing from Reese the minute he saw me. "You traced my phone, I'm assuming."

"Yes. Then I hacked into the buildings cameras only to find you face to face with Snow."

"You saw what happen?"

"We both did. I think you should go talk to John, Ms. Westen" Harold said with a disappointed look.

Great. Not only did they know I snuck off, they know what happened between Mark and I. I tried to lighten the mood mode by joking, "At least you know you're good at teaching hacking now." Finch didn't even flinch. I sighed and walked into Reese's room to find him sitting up in bed with a stern look on his face. "How are you feeling?"

"A mixture of anger, pain, and relief to be honest." The last feeling caught me off guard. John Reese, Mr. Big Bad CIA was relieved to see me?

"Finch told me you watched the video footage?"

"Yeah. I have no idea what you said to Mark, but he looked so angry and I don't think I've ever seen him that angry. What you did was incredibly stupid, you could have been killed."

"Don't you think I know that. And there was no sound on the footage?" That was kind of a relief, John didn't have to know what Mark said to me.

"No. Why do you look relieved almost? Why would you go and hunt him down anyway? There was no need for you to go and find Mark." Here it comes, Reese was beginning to look pissed.

"Look. I did this for you! I knew it was dangerous to go after him, I'm not an idiot. But there are certain things that you have to do even if they are dangerous." I was getting angry. How could he not see I did this for him.

"Lauren, I didn't ask you to do that! Marks not your problem he's mine. I can handle my own problems. Besides, if you wanted to take care of things, why didn't you kill him? Now he's just going to be coming after you!"

"God, you're so hard headed! People can do nice things for you, you know. You deserve good things to happen to you! You're a good man even if you won't believe it yourself! You don't know how much I wanted to kill him. I went there with the full intention on killing him, but then I realized if Mark was my problem, I would want to kill him myself. Then I remembered Carter is looking for me, and I am in the system from being in the FBI. If I killed him, everyone would know who I was and every agency known to man would be after me. I'd jeopardize our whole operation and all of our lives. So I kept him alive to make the message of staying away clear, and if not you could kill him yourself. You deserve that much after all the shit he's probably put you through."

Reese seemed to soften his stern look. Maybe he was beginning to understand. "I get it. I didn't mean to get so angry, but he could've killed you, hell he almost did. I was just so angry you went to go talk to him. I thought I was going to end up watching you die on the video footage."

I was about to say something back when I realized how deep the meaning of John's words were, he couldn't live knowing he caused my death, he couldn't handle watching another person he cared for die. I sighed, now I really felt bad about going to meet Mark. John was here incapable of helping and I went face to face with his nemesis who would kill anyone in that got in his way. I sighed and walked over to the chair I slept in last night and sat down.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. During my realization of John's confession of sorts I realized I needed to ask him about Jessica. I knew it was going to be a touchy subject and I wasn't sure how to approach it. I tried to get the courage to ask him, but it never came. I was scared as hell to find out what happened and who she was and more importantly how Reese would feel about me knowing. I took a deep breath and started my questioning. "John, there's something I need to ask you about, and I really want the truth, no matter how bad it is."

He looked over at me and had an almost worried look on his face. "What's up Ren?"

Here goes nothing, "Who's Jessica?"

John had a pained look on his face. I could tell he was trying to figure out how I knew that name and if he should tell me anything. "Why do you want to know?"

"The other day when we brought you here you called me Jessica. You were really out of it. Then today Mark mentioned her name again. I know it's probably a touchy subject,but I really want to know." I had a sympathetic look on my face. I really hated having to ask him, but I knew Finch would never tell me anything.

It took John a while to answer. I knew it was going to be hard for him to discuss anything personal with me or anyone for that matter. "She was my girlfriend. I quit the army to be with her,but then 9/11 happened so I had to go back. I broke up with her, I thought she deserved to have someone better, someone that would always be there. I thought I would be a better soldier without having anyone to go home to. When I got the job at the CIA, I saw her again, she got married, but she said she would wait for me if I asked her too. I... I couldn't do it, so I left. She called me one day while I was working and she left a message saying she wanted to talk to someone. I tried to leave, but Snow wouldn't let me, he refused to let me go and see her because of some mission. That was the mission where he tried to kill me. When I got back into the states I went to her job to try and talk to her, but they told me she died. I found out her husband killed her and covered it up with a car accident, probably the night she called me."

Reese looked so upset I thought he was going to cry. No wonder he always wants to protect everyone. "John. I am so sorry." I felt so sorry for him. Ugh, that really sucks. Why did Reese have such a hard life? I can't believe what he's been through, let alone be able to live through it myself. "Please tell me you took care of the bastard."

"Yeah I did. As soon as I found him."

"Good. If you didn't I would have tracked him down." Reese smiled a little bit.

"Thanks. What did Mark say when he mentioned her name?"

"Reese you don't need to know. Okay? It's not going to change anything." He really didn't need to know what Snow said to me. Just thinking about made me want to go and kill him.

"Lauren, just tell me. I need to know."

I sighed, "John I'm not going to tell you."

He was starting to get really angry at me for refusing to tell him. "I need to know! Why won't you just tell me!?"

"John if I tell you, you're going to try to go and kill him and you are in no shape to do that."

"Lauren. Just tell me. I'm not going to go anywhere. I promise."

"John." I sighed, there was no way I was going to win especially when Reese looks at me with those blue eyes. "He told me the only reason you keep me around is because I remind you of her and that he figured you never told me what you did to her." He was dead silent and didn't even flinch. But boy did he have such an angry look on his face. Reese didn't even say anything to me. I was starting to get worried.

"Reese?"

"Get out." He didn't even look at me. He just continued to stare straight ahead.

"John, he just wanted to make me mad and more importantly make you mad. It doesn't mean anything."

"Get out."

I don't think I've ever seen Reese like this. He seemed to be so angry and confused and hurt. I didn't know what to say to him, so I just followed his orders and got up and walked out of his room.

As soon as Finch saw me, a worried look crossed his face, "Is everything okay Ms. Westen?"

"John just needs some time alone." I said sadly as I walked into the living area and plopped myself down on one of the couches. I saw Harold trying to figure out what to ask me about Reese's sudden need to be alone. "Look, he wanted to know what Mark said to me. I tried not to tell him,but he basically forced me. I knew he wasn't going to like it, but I never thought he would get this upset." I sighed and leaned back into the couch. Harold just looked at me and decided not to push it any further, so he walked away and sat at the kitchen table. I decided that I really needed some sleep after everything that has happened. I laid down on the couch and tried to get comfortable. I must have been pretty tired because I was asleep in a matter of minutes.

 _Meanwhile:_

 _Words cannot even describe how angry I am. How dare Mark say anything about Jessica to Lauren. He had no right. As soon as I get my hands on him I'm going to kill him._

 _Why would he even think to bring Jessica into this. I do not have those types of feelings for Lauren, I mean where would he even get the idea that I feel that way. Sure Lauren is easy on the eyes, and knows how to handle herself in a fight, Oh and that sarcastic personality of hers, any guy would be lucky to have her. Wait. What am I saying? And Why am I smiling? Whoa, get a grip John, it's just not possible. There is no way I feel that way about Ren. Or do I? I sighed. I hate feeling like this. Emotions make everything difficult and confusing. Ugh, why was I so upset at her before for doing the exact same thing I would have done? Why was I so relieved when she walked into the room unharmed? Why was I so happy to see her? I think I need some sleep, yeah that's it, the lack of sleep and pain medicine is making me have crazy thoughts._

I woke up feeling even worse than I did before. I looked at my watch and saw that I slept for over two hours; I guess I really was tired. When I finally got off of the couch Finch was nowhere to be found, strange. I got up and walked into the kitchen and noticed a note on the table. Harold said that he went to run an errand and hoped I was still going to be here when he came back.

I figured three hours should be enough time for Reese to cool off so I carefully opened the door to his room and found him still sitting up in bed. I should probably play it safe, so I asked him, "Can I come in?"

He quietly said, "Yeah." I walked over to the side of the bed and took a seat in the chair.

Reese spoke up first, "Lauren."

"Look John, I am so sorry about everything. I should have never went to go talk to Mark. I knew it was a bad idea,but I was so pissed off with a the CIA. Between what they did to you and my brother, I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't mean to make you worry or anything. I. I... Just didn't think it all the way through I guess."

"It's okay, Ren, I would have done the same thing. I over reacted. I'm just not good with sharing personal things and what Snow said just set me over the edge." John sighed.

"I get it." I said while grabbing a hold of his right hand and giving him a sympathetic look. "I want to tell you something. One of the reasons I'm so protective over people is because of my father. He was a nasty drunk to say the least. My twin and I got the brunt of it as soon as we were old enough to protect our mom. My childhood was not the prettiest. Because of that I never wanted anyone to have to go through the same thing I did. I thought the way to do that would be to go and help get criminals off the street, but most of the time we got there too late. It bothered me so much. I was so grateful Harold offered me this job, I mean now I get to help people before bad things happen to them." I took a deep breathe, "I've never told anyone that before." I went to take my hand away from John's, when to my surprise he held my hand tighter.

"I'm sorry Lauren. Thank you for telling me." John just continued to look at me. I started to chuckle when I thought came to me.

Reese looked at me like I was crazy before asking, "What's so funny?"

I smiled, "I think we just had moment. Or more like a few moments."

He smiled, "Yeah, I guess we did. Let's just not tell anyone, okay?"

I laughed and so did Reese. I joked, "Wouldn't want to break that hard ass demeanor of ours, now would we?"


	18. Chapter 18

_**Hi guys, Sorry for the sporadic updates. Work and college have been keeping me pretty busy. I haven't forgotten about this story! I'll be continuing to update, but it won't be on a schedule, just when I have time to write. Please continue to favorite and review, I really appreciate it! ~NJVigilante**_

 **Chapter 18: Bonnie and The Suit**

The last day and a half passed by pretty slow, especially for us. No new numbers had come up since John was shot, which I thought was pretty weird. We've decided to stay at the hotel until Reese heals, so we don't have to worry about him doing all the stairs that are at the library. I just hope Snow or anyone else doesn't decide to check upscale hotels for us in the meantime. Although, if I was a former spy in hiding, I would stay in a low end motel with no security so hopefully that's where Snow would look.

Reese was definitely starting to look like his old self again, he was still weak and injured though. Which meant when a new number did come in, I would be going into the field alone. I was slightly hoping that no numbers would come in until he got back to 100%. It was not going to be fun having John bitch in my ear the whole time and moan and groan about not being able to be out and about.

Reese and I have been becoming closer the last few days. I really cared for the guy, he was so brave and wanted nothing more than to save innocent people. He wanted to make sure that no one had to go what he went through, and I don't blame him. I have the same mindset when it comes to helping people. Reese and I always had a strong connection, It was evident in how open we were with each other and how good of partners we make. But i'm actually starting to worry my feeling for the guy are not totally platonic.

I've had a lot of time to do some thinking while Reese has been healing the past few days, and I'm starting to realize little things that suggest I might actually like him. That day we were doing surveillance and I kept thinking about his gorgeous eyes. Or that time I got uncomfortable when a women we helped, held Reese a little too long. I mean I put my freedom and even my life on the line just to save him a few days ago without a second thought. My only thought was needing to save Reese. And hell, I went after the CIA for him, and I wanted to kill Snow for hurting Reese. If I would have killed him, our whole operation would have been done. My fingerprints are still in the system, and i'm pretty sure there's no way to get rid of them. If I left even a partial print on Snow, everyone would know who killed the CIA guy. I'd be thrown in some underground black hole prison site with no chance of getting out. Thinking about it, I might have to ask Finch about removing my prints from the system later.

There have even been a few times where, I thought Reese might also have more than platonic thoughts about me, but it doesn't matter. I've gotten to learn enough about John to know that he doesn't think he deserves to be happy. He feels like he has to repay the world for all of the bad things he did while with the agency. He thinks he's such a monster and everyone sees him that way. He sees losing Jessica as a lesson to never get close to anyone, because when you do, you get hurt and so do the people you love. So even if there was anything there, i'll never know for sure.

Unfortunately, my prayers were not answered. I was sitting in my chair, yes my chair, in Reese's room when Finch walked in to tell us we got a new number. "Ms. Westen, Mr. Reese, i'm afraid we've just received a new number."

"Who is it Harold?" John asked, while sitting up in bed.

Harold said he would be right back and returned with a photo and his laptop. I dragged the other chair over by the bed for Finch to sit in. Once he sat down, he began to explain our new number. "James McDonald, 27 years old, single, lives and works in the city. He is a bodygaurd at the nightclub, Club Empire right in the heart of the city. I can't find any enemies, or ex-girlfriends with grudges, or any inklings on whether he is the victim or the perpetrator."

Interesting.

"We'll have to start with surveillance from outside the club first. I think that's the best option without having to go in right away" Reese said.

"Uh we? I don't think so Reese." I said. Of course he assumed he was going to go back to work already.

He looked so confused, "What do you mean?" he asked

"Reese, you were shot and you're still recovering, you're not going anywhere" I said, hoping John would leave it at that, but I doubted it.

John gave me a stern look and said, "Lauren, sitting in a car doing surveillance isn't going to hurt me."

I mean I guess he did have a point, but still. I sighed, "John, I swear if anything happens and you get out of the car, I'm going to shoot you." There was no point in arguing with him, it would never end.

Later that night saw Reese and I sitting in a dark car parked across the street from the club. The club was definitely crowded for a club we've never heard of before. So far nothing out of the ordinary has happened, just James checking people into the club.

It was about two am before James had to start kicking people out. Around 2:30, an extremely drunk looking girl stumbled out of the club with James. He had his arm around her helping her to walk. The way she was talking to him, it almost looked like they knew each other. Maybe she was a regular?

Reese was the first to speak up about the girl, "Looks like someone had a few too many daiquiris."

I laughed, such a typical girl drink. "Looks like James might even know her the way they're talking and stuff."

"Maybe." John replied.

About ten minutes later a cab pulled up and the drunk girl and James got in. His shift had ended about a half hour ago, but he was here helping the drunk girl. Hmm.

I clicked my earpiece and called Finch, "Hey Harold, any idea as to who this mystery drunk girl is?"

A few seconds later I heard the keyboard clicking stop and Harold replied, "Bessy Smith, 22. I ran a facial recognition scan and it looks like she's a regular and always takes a cab home."

"What do you think Reese, follow the cab to see whats up?"

Reese checked his watch and said, "Yeah why not, who needs sleep anyway."

After a forty minute drive we ended up outside an average looking apartment complex. Both James and Bessy walked up the stairs into the building and continued up to her apartment. A light clicked on in a room about five floors up, unfortunately there were curtains which meant we couldn't see what was going on inside.

I looked over at Reese who was struggling to keep his eyes open. "John, why don't you recline the seat and sleep?"

He looked over at me and gave me a look like he was going to argue. "Reese, you are still recovering. Take a damn nap, I can handle this." He stared at me for a second and then sighed. He slowly lowered the seat and closed his eyes. Now if only I can stay awake.

About two hours later I was struggling to stay awake when a cab pulled up. James walked out and into the cab before it drove off. Hmm, must have only been a booty call.

I followed the cab all the way back to James' house before I decided to call it a night. He was in his home, safe and sound. There was no way I would be able to stay up any longer and still be able to function tomorrow. Any normal day I would've told Reese to wake up and take watch, but he was still recovering. And he looked so peaceful sleeping. It was probably the most peaceful I have ever seen him sleep. It was weird to see him out on a case in a plain t-shirt. As good as John looked in a suit, he looked just as good in a t-shirt and jeans.

….

I woke up to Reese calling my name, I sat up and looked around and got confused, Where the hell are we? Then I realized we had spent the night sleeping in our car outside McDonald's house.

Once I looked over at John he began to speak, "Ren, Finch just called, we have two problems." He looked frustrated and even slightly upset? Like sad upset, not mad upset.

"What's going on Reese?"

"Well first, Finch kept an alert on that Bessy girl. Turns out she just walked into the police station to report a rape."

"Wait, What?! Her and James looked into each other last night. Do we have any more details?" This was not good.

"Not yet, Carter's still interviewing her. It seems like she's claiming she was drugged." Drugged? She was drunk out of her mind leaving last night.

"Uh Reese, are there surveillance cams inside the club?"

"Finch said no, so we have no idea where she was drugged" He Sighed.

"John, could this just be remorse? I mean she looked drunk out of her mind last night. I don't even think James was in her apartment long enough to have drugged her." I sighed, we were supposed to be watching this guy and he drugged and raped a girl on our watch.

"I don't know Ren. We have to wait to talk to Carter, she'll have a better idea." Today was going to be a long day. I put the car into drive and headed for a diner near the precinct. Then it hit me, Reese said there were two things.

"John, what else did Harold tell you?"

John sighed and a flash of upsetness flashed across his face, but it was over in a second. "Oh um. Finch got a call from Carter this morning. She got a call from an FBI agent. He had read Carter's case files on us and recognized your shooting style. He told Carter he knows who her 'Knee-Capping Bonnie' is."

Fuck me. I sighed, "Did she say who the agent was?" I had an idea of who it was, but I needed to know for sure.

"She said his name was Donnelly." Ugh of course it was him. Reese noticed my change in demeanor right away, "You know him?"

I groaned and punched the steering wheel, "Yeah, he was the one that brought my 'unprofessional shootings' up to the big guys. We never got along, he's a black and white, absolutely no grey kinda guy."

Reese sighed and said, "I know the type. Always has to be by the rules, no exceptions."

"Exactly."

I starting making the drive to the diner when Finch beeped in, "Ah Ms. Westen you're awake. Good. Carter has finished her report. Once your done meeting with her, I suggest coming back to the hotel to regroup. Oh and Ms. Westen, please be careful" with that he hung up.

The ten minute drive to the diner was extremely quiet. I was contemplating on what to do now. How was I going to get Donnelly to back off? That guy was almost as stubborn as me and John, he was never going to let up.


End file.
